2002-03 Broadcast Season
Broadcast Program Transcripts
Episode #1806
Your Invisible Vote

Lewis: Mitchell Lewis, moderator
Jarvis: Sonia Jarvis, North Carolina Operation Big Vote
Siebert: Melissa Siebert, Southern Voting Rights Project
Yates: Fred Yates, North Carolina NAACP

Voiceover: Coming up, apathy and the African-American voter. Why does it appear that after the struggles made for the privilege to vote, that some African-Americans choose to be passive about the process? We'll take a look at the root causes and efforts to educate and encourage voters to go to the polls. Next, on Black Issues Forum.

Voiceover: This program was made possible by contributions to UNC-TV from viewers like you. Thank you.

[THEME MUSIC]

Lewis: Good evening and welcome to Black Issues Forum. I'm Mitchell Lewis. With election Day quickly approaching on Tuesday, November 5, voter apathy is apparent, especially in the African-American community. While many activists of the past endured pain and even death for the privilege to vote, why is it that some African-Americans don't bother to make their voices heard through the voting process? Tonight we have three special experts to help shed some light on this issue as well as talk about projects designed to increase African-American participation at the polls. Sonia Jarvis is the coordinator for the North Carolina Operation Big Vote with the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. Melissa Siebert is director of the Southern Voting Rights Project with the Institute for Southern Studies. And Fred Yates is the third vice president of the North Carolina NAACP and the political action chairman of the organization state conferences of branches. And to all of you, welcome to Black Issues Forum. Ms. Jarvis, we'll start off with you. Why is voter turnout so low among African-Americans?

Jarvis: Well, Mr. Lewis, there are a number of reasons. Some people feel that their vote just doesn't count, so what's the point? Others believe that campaigns are designed to actually discourage voting, and we know from research and statistics that persons that have a stake in the society at large tend to participate at higher levels. For example, if you own your home as opposed to rent, you're more likely to vote. If you're older rather than younger, you're more likely to vote. Those are just some of the statistics we can look at. We've also seen over time that racial minorities and ethnic minorities have very often felt left out of the political process. And without special outreach to those groups, sometimes those voters don't feel invited to participate in the process.

Lewis: Mr. Yates, from the NAACP standpoint, why is it that African-Americans aren't going to the polls?

Yates: I think the media has a lot to do with it, and the lack of education, how important it is to voice your opinion. And by voicing your opinion, you have a vote to do it with. And a lot of people are not aware of it until something personally happens to them. Or some local official does something to irritate them. For example, free lunches in the school system throughout the state now. We're finding that the boards of education are cutting out the free lunches, so therefore the parent, single mom, that can't afford to get up early in the morning to feed the child and get them to daycare, whatever, now has an issue that they can relate to. This will somehow stem the tide of, you know, I will arrive, I won't worry about it. Now they're beginning to worry.

Lewis: Ms. Siebert, does this low turnout, is it a regional trend or is it nationwide?

Siebert: I believe it's nationwide, though you have to also remember that the majority of African-Americans do live in the South, so specifically looking at the South, we can see that voter turnout is much lower for minority communities.

Lewis: Ms. Jarvis, was there ever a time that African-Americans turned out in numbers to vote?

Jarvis: Well, I think it's important for us to remember our history, especially in the south, as Ms. Siebert just mentioned. Prior to 1960, clearly two-thirds of African-Americans could not vote at all, and most of them at that time were in the South as well. That has changed, yet we have seen since 1960, which was the last, really, I think that's the high water mark in terms of overall national voter participation. We've seen declining participation rates, and in the South it also required the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to encourage African-Americans to actually come to the polls. It was designed to overcome barriers that were still in place even after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had been passed.

Lewis: Mr. Yates, could the idea that African-Americans are just lax when it comes to voting, could that be a factor?

Yates: These changes in the society, we had people to die to give people a right to vote, and that was a major issue at that time. The change in society -- you know, now that I have a good job, now that I have the home, the car-become lackadaisical, and I think that plays a major part in it.

Lewis: Now, is this just among African-Americans or does it seem like.

Yates: Oh no, no. [LAUGHTER] It's broad-based. It's broad-based. It has to be an issue. To give you a given, it has to have something to draw them to the poll. It has to become personal. They have to have a personal stake in it to--a local election, a sheriff's race, for example. If it's heated, then you'll find people going to the poll. But if it's not heated, and uncontested candidates, non-partisan, those things play heavily into it, because if you don't have a local race to bring it up.we just went to the first congressional district in the primary. We had four good candidates, and we had the highest turnout across the state in the first congressional district. It was a reason for the people to go to the polls. And they went and they elected the person they want to represent them, both republican and democrat. So, it's the issues that draw people to the poll.

Lewis: Do you think that there have been tactics initiated to try to keep African-Americans and others away from the polls?

Yates: Again, I go back to the media-the print. They're predicting a low turnout. You tell me, you tell me: I'm not going to vote, I'm not going to vote, I'm not going to vote. Eventually I'm not going to vote. I think that the print media plays a lot to that, and the newscasters in the evening telling, well, we expect 20%, and you know, what's the use? Nobody's going to vote, so I ain't going neither, I'm going to work. But I think you see, I know in northeastern North Carolina, especially up in the area where I live, they're getting high turnouts for the early vote. So that's going to make a difference as well.

Lewis: Ms. Siebert, do you see any type of tactics as far as discouraging people from voting?

Siebert: I don't know if I would call it tactics necessarily. I would say that one of the things that I think discourages people from voting is the lack of voter education. I think if people are not felt like they're kept in the system, then they don't feel like they're a part of the system and they're less apt to participate in the system. One of the biggest examples of voter education, particularly in North Carolina this year, has been all the redistricting changes that have happened, and there's no federal nor state mandate to educate voters about these changes. So undoubtedly voters will show up at the polls thinking that they know who they're voting for, finding out once they get to the polls that they don't know who they're voting for, and really feeling left out again, left out of the process. So, I don't know if you would call that a tactic necessarily, but I think that is something that discourages voters.

Lewis: Now, you're also a part of the Southern Voting Rights Project, and you came out with a report. What were some of the findings as far as voting problems in your report?

Siebert: In the report, it covered a number of problems that our research has determined. We've done interviews with approximately 20 directors across the state, directors of county Boards of Elections. We've also attended state board of Elections trainings and met with a number of voting groups and citizen organizations to determine what are some of these problems. One of the things that we looked at, we looked at the voting equipment. In interviews with state board of elections officials, the election officials have said that our voting equipment in North Carolina is a ticking time bomb. They've stated that at least 20% of the voting equipment is at risk, meaning it could malfunction or something could go wrong at any time. We saw that happen in Robeson County in the primaries. Our report specifically looked at what happened in Robeson County, and looked at some of the problems that we had identified before, and problems with this voting equipment, I think, it was 75% of their machines malfunctioned on primary election day.

Lewis: Ms. Jarvis, you've probably witnessed some of this. What do you see are the underlying currents as far as some of the things Ms. Siebert has discussed here?

Jarvis: Well, let's take for example the early voting process, which I think is a good idea. Any time you're making it easier for people to vote I'm generally in favor of it. However, when I talk to black voters, very often they don't trust the process. They feel that perhaps someone's going to segregate my vote or treat it differently, and then when the state board of election might have difficulty or trouble with machines in two or more locations involving early voting, and have to then tell those voters: please come in and vote again--all that does is reinforce that perception that there may be a problem. So that along with equipment problems or persons showing up at their polling place and finding out that their name might not be on the list or that the location ran out of provisional ballots, or any one of a number of different frustrations, that causes people to feel: well, I went through this trouble, I took the time, and I'm not even sure my vote's going to be counted."

Lewis: Any solutions to it?

Jarvis: Well, I think education. I think we would all agree that education is the first step. If you know your rights, you're not going to let anyone turn you away from the polls. That's number one. Number two, there are a number of groups around the state and in the region that are interested in helping people learn how to use the equipment and to make sure that if there are problems they know who to call. In the Raleigh/Durham area for example, you can certainly call Operation Big Vote and we would be available to provide assistance if you have a problem on Election Day. And I'll be happy to give you that number if you'd like it.

Lewis: Oh, certainly.

Jarvis: That's 919-755-5588. Beyond that, I think it's a matter of every group that cares about the election process and is involved in civic participation to encourage their members, their churches, the sororities, fraternities, any social organization, I think to provide reminders this weekend that November 5th is election day, and your vote does in fact count.

Lewis: Ms. Siebert, there is a North Carolina voter's bill of rights. What is entailed in that bill of rights?

Siebert: Essentially the North Carolina voter's bill of rights is North Carolina general statutes that protect voters at the polls. It's what your rights are when you show up at a polling place on Election Day.

Lewis: Mr. Yates, as far as the NAACP is concerned, what are some of the discrepancies that you all are seeing or you're hearing from people as they go to the polls?

Yates: It's the same ones that's been described before down in Robeson County, for example: the machine failure, long lines, no provincial ballots, when people go to the wrong place they don't have the ballot available for them to fill out, frustration. We get telephone calls to speak to the fact that, what are we going to do about it? We, our branches, we have a branch located in every county in North Carolina. Those branches are up and running. We have a voter empowerment program that has been put together and been operational by the national NAACP, and here in North Carolina it's been up and running through our president, Skip Alston, and Riza Jenkins is our coordinator, and we are educating our members about voting. The branches are holding candidate forums, they are asking the county commissioners and the board of elections to produce the machines, to help people practice on the machine before they go. Those type things.

Lewis: Ms. Siebert, you touched on the North Caroline Voter's Bill of Rights. What are some of the premises involved and some of the and, say, some of the high points of that bill of rights that voters should know?

Siebert: Okay. The most important in my opinion in the Voter Bill of Rights is the right to a provisional ballot. Again, the voter rolls in North Carolina are not very accurate. There have been some problems with, the State Board of Elections has implemented recently a SEIMS System, it's a statewide voter registration system. And in any conversion there is data that is lost, there is data that doesn't convert, and in this case we are talking about voter registration data that isn't necessarily converting from the old system to the new, so there is that chance that a voter's name will not appear on the voter rolls. So voters need to know that if by chance your name does not appear on the voter rolls on election day you have the right to vote provisionally. You have the right to insist on receiving a provisional ballot. If a voter doesn't know that they may show up at the polls, they may be told by a poll worker that their name is not on the registration list, and they may be turned away, versus being offered a provisional ballot. So it's very important that voters understand that they have that right. Some of the others are the opening and closing of the polling places. The polls in North Carolina open at 6:30 AM and they close at 7:30 PM. If you are in line by 7:30 PM you have the right to cast that vote. Don't let any poll worker or anybody try to tell you that because the polls close at 7:30 and you are in line that you can't cast your vote, because you do have that right to vote.

Lewis: What rights do spouses have?

Siebert: Spouses in North Carolina have the right to occupy the same voting booth with their spouse. So in North Carolina if you go with a husband or wife to vote the two folks can enter the polling place together.

Lewis: And disabled voters?

Siebert: Disabled voters have the right to request assistance, either bring someone in to assist them or to request assistance from poll workers.

Lewis: Ms. Jarvis, tell us a little bit about the Motor Voter rights.

Jarvis: Well, one of the ideas behind the Motor Voter Bill that a lot of people are aware of-it was actually the National Voter Registration Reform Act-was to allow voter registration to occur in every state and federal agency. The idea being that these are places where people come on a regular daily basis, allow them to also register as they are registering their car or finding access to other state or federal services. In general, I think that the passage was a very positive step forward for voter registration reform. However, there have been problems in implementation. If an agency doesn't send in its forms in to the State Board of Election, then a person who did register at that agency and gets to the polls and finds out their name's not there may be very upset about that. However, that hasn't been a major problem here in North Carolina. It's been a problem in some of the other states. I think the other issue though is that we find too many people still are not registering at all, even with the availability of Motor Voter, and that is one of the reasons why one of our smaller projects, Black Youth Vote, has concentrated on younger voters. We've worked in partnership with the Youth Vote Coalition and North Carolina Public Interest Research Group to reach students on college campuses, but also in non-traditional settings to let them know that if they are going for their driver's license and they are over 18, that they can vote, but they have to fill out the rest of the form.

Lewis: Now Mr. Yates, the NAACP has a voter empowerment program. Tell us a little about that.

Yates: The Voter Empowerment Program was established at the national level and is operated on the regional and a state-by-state basis. We have a coordinator-like I said before, Ms. Riza Jenkins-who is employed by the national office. It's an ongoing voter registration program for the whole year. And what happens, the vice presidents now, under the direction of our president Skip Austin, has gotten actively involved with our district directors and our branch presidents to make sure that we register every person who is available to be registered in our counties, and then we make a report back to our state conference, who makes a report back to the national. Speaking of the youth, we also have a college chapter and youth councils. The college chapters is-one of the strongest ones is here at UNC-and that is how we are getting the youth involved. This year has been a blessed year, because we have done some things, we have had more youth at our state convention than any past time in the history of our state conference. The college chapters are working with the youth chapters located in the states as well as the branch president, so we are really coordinating for the first time to really ensure-and Carolyn Coleman, who is heading it up, working with Riza Jenkins, is doing a marvelous job.

Lewis: Ms. Jarvis, now, you are affiliated with Operation Big Vote. Is there any type of program in place to assist youth as well as other folks? Tell us about that.

Jarvis: Well, Operation Big Vote is a project of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, and the National Coalition is composed of member organizations such as the NAACP and other national black groups that have come together to focus attention on the continued need for voter outreach and education. In North Carolina we have had a statewide operation since May in Cumberland County, in New Hanover County, and the Charlotte Metro area and in the Greensboro Metro area, in addition to the Raleigh/Durham headquarters that I mentioned earlier. In particular, with respect to the youth we have been engaged since September in directed activities towards our young people on college campuses in the area and community centers and local churches. That has included everything from rallies, event forums, door-to-door canvassing, and this weekend we will actually be engaged in phone banking, calling every student that we have had contact with, every person that we registered over the course of the last five months, we will give them a call and encourage them to come to the polls. The idea is to demonstrate that the process of voting is not over simply by sending in your registration card. It means finding out about the issues. We have been distributing voter guides all over the state. We have tried to provide that information that Ms. Siebert and Mr. Yates talked about earlier, that people need to see to feel comfortable going to the polls. So it's a combination of everything, from door-to-door canvassing to rides to the polls, to enable not only our African American youth but voters of all ages. If they need assistance, we are going to do our best to help them.

Lewis: Do you see the effectiveness of some of your efforts?

Jarvis: Well I go back to a point Mr. Yates made earlier: if everyone believes this will be a low turnout election, it could very well be. However I'm encouraged by the type of reception we've received from the young people we've talked to, along with the voters we talked to during the primary process. People felt that it was very confusing during the primary; they did not know when it was going to be held. As you recall, there was a several-month gap between when it was originally supposed to be held and when it was held. That type of confusion was caused by the redistricting process and a lot of lawsuits and other maneuverings that occurred. And when you have that type of confusion, it makes it difficult for people to figure out what's happening. But now we have four days left before the election, it's November 5, 6:30 to 7:30 PM You can vote and indicate your preferences through this process.

Lewis: Ms. Siebert, do you see any new programs that could possibly be implemented to help improve the African-American vote, or voting in general?

Siebert: Well one of the programs that we tried to, we implemented a pilot program in the primaries, is this election protection program that was developed by People for the American Way, out of DC, and also it was the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation put together a coalition after the 2000 elections called voices of the electorate, which I feel very privileged to have been asked to be a part of. In sitting down at those meetings, that was when that program was introduced, when the Election Protection was introduced. It was run in 2001 in Virginia and New Jersey, I believe, and in a number of states as well in the primaries. And so we implemented a smaller scale version of that in two counties in North Carolina. And what was great about that is that we were out there, we were passing out, distributing the Voters' Bill of Rights. And we were also documenting problems that we saw occurring. There's no mandate for counties in North Carolina to document problems, that calls that come into a Board of Election, for example, or any kind of other problem. So there's no way of seeing what are some of the general trends of problems, what's going on across the state. The only way they will document your problem is if you file a formal written complaint, which I think most voters don't take the time to do, even if they have experienced that at the polls. So we feel like this program is out there protecting the voters and letting voters know that someone's on their side and someone is going to stick up for them and someone's going to help educate them about what their rights are at the polls.

Lewis: Well folks, I thank you so very much for your comments today, and thank you for being with us. Thank you Sonia Jarvis, Melissa Siebert, and Fred Yates for being a part of our program, and thank you for watching Black Issues Forum this evening. If you would like to learn more about tonight's guests or obtain a transcript of this program, please visit us online at www.unctv.org/bif, or you can call us with your comments at 919-549-7167. We appreciate your feedback and your viewing support. Be sure to join us every Friday night at 9:30 right here on UNC-TV, and don't forget to exercise your right to vote. I'm Mitchell Lewis, good night.