Group Focused on Improving Black Voter Turnout Statewide
Tyler Whetstone
Knoxville News Sentinel
6:00 a.m. ET Sept. 17, 2018
Tequila Johnson and Charlane Oliver of The Equity Alliance speak before Mt. Zion Baptist Church on getting voter turnout. Courtesy of Mt. Zion Baptist Church
A Nashville-based group is working to register 55,000 voters this fall before registration to vote in the state general election closes in October, and it's about halfway there.
Tequila Johnson is the statewide manager of the Tennessee Black Voter Project. The campaign is using churches and local organizations to help sign up black voters and will visit college campuses to register African-Americans across the state.
In Knoxville, the group is working specifically with the Knoxville-Knox County NAACP and with SEED.
More: Why black churches in Nashville are ramping up voter registration efforts in 2018
“We’re meeting people where they are, engaging and educating African-American community members to get them involved,” Johnson said Friday.
One of the largest challenges in any community, she said, is sometimes people don’t know elections are coming up. This is why they’re working with local groups, she said.
Johnson said the goal is to get “people in the game” and signed up to vote. Currently, she said, the group has registered 20,000 to 25,000 people, on track for where she hoped to be in the middle of September.
While African-Americans are largely Democratic voters, she said, the goal is to sign people up, regardless of party.
“Democracy works best when we all participate,” she said. “And what it looks like depends on that individual’s values. … This project isn’t to encourage them to lean any one way but to explore what democracy looks like to them.”
Getting people to register and vote in Tennessee is already a challenge.
According to the PEW Charitable Trust’s much-cited analysis of the 2014 midterm elections, the most recent figures it has, Tennessee was a dismal 40th in voter registration at 74 percent of voting age population, and was 50th in voter turnout, just 28.5 percent, that November. PEW's data is based on responses to the U.S. Census Bureau's Voting and Registration Supplement.
Katie Cahill, of the Howard H Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee, on the state's voting registration and turnout numbers. Tyler Whetstone, USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee
During the 2016 presidential election, only 49 percent of the 519,000 African-Americans registered to vote in Tennessee did so, according to U.S. census figures gathered by the USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee.
Voters can register to vote in Tennessee online or with the GoVoteTN app. The last day to register to vote is Tuesday, Oct. 9.
Early voting will be held from Wednesday, Oct. 17, through Thursday, Nov. 1. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 6.
The Commercial Appeal’s Tonyaa Weathersbee contributed to this report.
Knoxville News Sentinel
6:00 a.m. ET Sept. 17, 2018
Tequila Johnson and Charlane Oliver of The Equity Alliance speak before Mt. Zion Baptist Church on getting voter turnout. Courtesy of Mt. Zion Baptist Church
A Nashville-based group is working to register 55,000 voters this fall before registration to vote in the state general election closes in October, and it's about halfway there.
Tequila Johnson is the statewide manager of the Tennessee Black Voter Project. The campaign is using churches and local organizations to help sign up black voters and will visit college campuses to register African-Americans across the state.
In Knoxville, the group is working specifically with the Knoxville-Knox County NAACP and with SEED.
More: Why black churches in Nashville are ramping up voter registration efforts in 2018
“We’re meeting people where they are, engaging and educating African-American community members to get them involved,” Johnson said Friday.
One of the largest challenges in any community, she said, is sometimes people don’t know elections are coming up. This is why they’re working with local groups, she said.
Johnson said the goal is to get “people in the game” and signed up to vote. Currently, she said, the group has registered 20,000 to 25,000 people, on track for where she hoped to be in the middle of September.
While African-Americans are largely Democratic voters, she said, the goal is to sign people up, regardless of party.
“Democracy works best when we all participate,” she said. “And what it looks like depends on that individual’s values. … This project isn’t to encourage them to lean any one way but to explore what democracy looks like to them.”
Getting people to register and vote in Tennessee is already a challenge.
According to the PEW Charitable Trust’s much-cited analysis of the 2014 midterm elections, the most recent figures it has, Tennessee was a dismal 40th in voter registration at 74 percent of voting age population, and was 50th in voter turnout, just 28.5 percent, that November. PEW's data is based on responses to the U.S. Census Bureau's Voting and Registration Supplement.
Katie Cahill, of the Howard H Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee, on the state's voting registration and turnout numbers. Tyler Whetstone, USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee
During the 2016 presidential election, only 49 percent of the 519,000 African-Americans registered to vote in Tennessee did so, according to U.S. census figures gathered by the USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee.
Voters can register to vote in Tennessee online or with the GoVoteTN app. The last day to register to vote is Tuesday, Oct. 9.
Early voting will be held from Wednesday, Oct. 17, through Thursday, Nov. 1. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 6.
The Commercial Appeal’s Tonyaa Weathersbee contributed to this report.
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