Election 2022: Battle Creek nonpartisan collaborative seeks to educate, empower voters
CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS: A previously published version of this report misidentified the location of the Oct. 9 candidate forum, which was at the Maranatha Original Church of God.
Surrounded by food trucks, music and a soccer game, Steffy Conde sat at her booth under a pavilion at Riverside Park, trying to entice people to vote in the Nov. 8 election.
She was there representing the Battle Creek nonprofit Voces at the Oct. 1 Kermes Familiar, a National Hispanic Heritage Month celebration, as part of the organization's Get Out The Vote initiative.
Conde had a secret weapon in attracting potential voters: candy.
“It’s cheap, but it surprisingly works," she said. "What can I give them? Like pens and candy, that was a big thing. Popcorn is a big thing too, so I said, 'Put me next to the food.'"
Conde is the Get Out The Vote coordinator for Voces, an organization that serves the Latinx community in Calhoun County. It is one of 11 local organizations that recently joined forces to form a Battle Creek Get Out The Vote Collaboration for a nonpartisan effort to educate and empower the community to vote.
"It’s hard to convince people to register to vote and go out and vote," Conde said. "Listening to them, I work with them, but they have to show up and put pressure on people in charge.”
Michigan could see a historic number of votes cast for the Nov. 8 gubernatorial election, Secretary of State spokesperson Jake Rollow said on Oct. 11. Early voting began on Sept. 29, but clerks only can begin processing the returned ballots the Sunday before Election Day.
In the 2020 presidential election, a record 5.5 million people voted in Michigan, which was also the highest percentage of registered voters (about 71%) to cast a ballot since 1960. Much of that was driven by a record 3.3 million people who voted absentee.
For the Battle Creek Get Out The Vote collaboration, it's about ensuring the local electorate is informed, encouraging people to use their votes to have their voices heard.
Calhoun County seeing rise in registered voters, absentee ballots
Calhoun County Clerk Kimberly Hinkley said she expects a higher voter turnout in the county than in previous midterm elections. As of Wednesday, Calhoun County had 108,430 registered voters, according to the Secretary of State. That's compared to 106,478 registered voters during the 2020 presidential election and 50,866 in the 2018 midterms.
“We usually have a bigger turnout for a presidential election than a gubernatorial election," Hinkley said. "In 2020, we had a 62.8% turnout, which was wonderful. In 2018, we had a turnout of 51.3%. I anticipate with the way things are looking, we are hoping to have at least a 55% turnout for midterms. That will be great."
Hinkley noted that redistricting at both the state and county level will impact polling locations and who is on the ballot. Early voting is also on the rise, with the county issuing more than 14,000 absentee ballots to date.
“I believe this will be a true test of what those absentee ballots look like going forward," Hinkley said. "With the pandemic, we had multiple calls and local clerks as well, people concerned about making it to the polls on election day just in case they became sick and were unable to attend the polls. Many of those ballots were surrendered on election day because they wanted to vote in person, if possible.
"This will be our first election post-2018 to see what those numbers look like. It’s still kind of new and people are getting the handle of (not having) to claim a reason to vote absentee. All kinds of groups are getting their information out, so I think we will see an increase going forward."
Collaboration seeks to remove barriers to voting
A week ago, the Battle Creek Get Out The Vote Collaboration held a candidate forum.
Moderated by Michael "Mac" McCullough of Willard Library, the forum saw 30 candidates for city, county and state offices each give a two-minute presentation to those gathered at Maranatha Original Church of God about why they were running for their particular office and why they could have the biggest impact on the community. Candidates were only allowed to speak about themselves, not their opponents, before answering questions from voters in breakout sessions.
The event came together in a matter of three weeks, shortly after the collaboration was formed. The collaboration consists of the Southwestern Michigan Urban League, the League of Women Voters Kalamazoo Calhoun County Unit, the Battle Creek Senior Branch of the NAACP, Voces, Battle Creek Burma Center, A. Philip Randolph Institute of Greater Battle Creek, Battle Creek Pride, Pink Ribbon Sisterhood, American Association of University Women, Battle Creek Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. and the Battle Creek Club NANBPWC, Inc.
“Most of the organizations have a mission to get out the vote," said Shirley Tuggle of the Battle Creek Senior Chapter of the NAACP. "We felt coming together was more powerful. We could reach more people in our communities as we came together on that one issue: getting out the vote. And helping our constituents get to know some of the candidates and... what the issues are."
Tha Par, executive director for the Burma Center, said some of the organizations see similar barriers to voting in the communities they serve.
“It’s interesting that we serve different segments of the population, that the issues and challenges we all experience are similar in terms of being familiar with who the candidates are and knowing the voting poll and what the issues are," Par said. "So for us, the additional challenge is the language barrier. So if you can’t read all the English literature, who are you to know who can speak to your values and the solutions that you want. One of the things we are actively working on is making sure literature is translated so people can make informed decisions.”
Through the Michigan Secretary of State website, absentee ballots applications are currently available in Bengali, Somali, Vietnamese, Russian, Arabic, Dari, Pashto, Amharic, Chinese/Mandarin, Korean and Spanish. On election day, Michigan residents have the right to have an interpreter with them to assist the voter, so long as it is not an employer or officer or agent of a labor union.
Deboraha Sallee of the Battle Creek chapter of the A. Phillip Randolph Institute has been volunteering to encourage people to vote since 1978. Her focus is on registering new voters, which makes her a regular fixture at local high schools and colleges. She said one major challenge is convincing young people that their vote matters.
“To vote is to speak," Sallee said. "I run into people a lot of times who say, ‘I’m not going to vote.’ I say, ‘Why not? That’s your voice, don’t you want it to be heard?’ Tell me, if somebody in your family does something you don’t like, do you just pass it by and not say anything. Of course not. That’s your voice. That’s what voting is about – you use your voice.”
Contact reporter Nick Buckley at nbuckley@battlecreekenquirer.com or 269-966-0652. Follow him on Twitter:@NickJBuckley
This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: Battle Creek nonpartisan Get Out Vote collaborative educates, empowers voters
