[00:00:18] Speaker A: Welcome to Uptown Chats, a podcast where we share stories about environmental justice by and for everyday people. I'm your co host, Lonnie.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: And I'm your other co host, Jaron. And today, we are going to be talking about voting. Yes, that's right. For those of you who are asking yourself, wait, it's May. Why are we talking about voting? Well, that's because of two very special reasons. One reason is because we have the New York state primary election coming up in June, which is right around the corner. And we're going to read you off some of those very important dates here in just a second. But, Lonnie, what's the other reason that we're talking about voting right now?
[00:00:49] Speaker A: Yeah, we act is going to be hosting some candidate forums.
[00:00:51] Speaker B: So all of you folks living uptown will get some helpful information about what to expect in your ballot and the candidates that you might see on there.
[00:00:59] Speaker A: Before we get to that, can you let the people know what our mission is?
[00:01:02] Speaker B: Sure. We act's mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and or low income residents participate meaningfully in the creation of sound and fair environmental, health and protection policies and practices.
All right, so like we mentioned, we've got some important dates coming up in terms of the elections here in New York. And so, because we are so kind, we have done the work for you and are gonna share some important dates that are coming up just right around the corner in June, the first of which is June 15. And that is the last day to register to vote in the federal, state, and city primary election. June 15 to June 23, is early voting for that primary. So if you're someone who likes to get things done early, make sure you do your early voting. Make sure that you're registered for that, so that you can get it done and just forget about it. It's like all of us who do our taxes, like January or February, that sweet sense of relief. You're like, ah, yes, I'm done with it. And you get to watch all the people march and April who are just stressed out about it.
[00:02:03] Speaker A: I was not one of those people for taxes this year. However, I do like to be the.
[00:02:07] Speaker B: Early voter as well.
[00:02:08] Speaker A: It's also nice. Cause you can kind of plan out. Cause I think we're going on vacation right after that. So during the election season. Right?
[00:02:15] Speaker B: Wait, right around then. Yep. Yep. So all the more reason to get our early vote in. Yes. And of course, the last day I'll mention is June 25, which is the actual election day for the primary election and polls will be open from 06:00 a.m. To 09:00 p.m. So if you've already forgotten all those dates that I shared, you make sure to go to weact.org vote. They're all listed there for your reference. Yeah.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: Make sure you register to vote. Don't wait til the last minute to do it.
[00:02:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Get it done. And Lonnie, do you want to tell us a little bit more about these candidates forums? Just for folks who are curious, when are they, and just really quickly, what does candidates forum.
[00:02:50] Speaker A: Yeah, Pamela's going to go into a little bit deeper dive in that in our interview with her a little later. But we host candidates forums where those who are going to be on the ballot come and they talk about the issues that are going on kind of like one on one. So it's kind of like a nice little intimate react members with the candidate and get to ask questions and things like that as well.
[00:03:11] Speaker B: That sounds very useful. I would love to know the people who are on the ballot before I vote for them. Yeah.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: Because it might be more people than you think, especially for a primary election as well. So we got these candidates forums coming up. They're May 16, 17th and 18th. So May 16 is virtual. And that's gonna be for the assembly District 71. We have May 17, which is gonna be assembly District 70, and that's gonna be in person. And then May 18, Assembly District 69, which is also in person as well. For locations and those details, you can just check out our website, weact.org dot.
[00:03:43] Speaker B: We'll make sure to include a link in the show notes. If you'd like to join us for one of those events, then make sure to check out the show notes, and you can register and join any one of those for your respective assembly district.
[00:03:56] Speaker A: Also, look out on our social media newsletter. We'll have all of that information for those events so you don't miss it.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: Absolutely. So with that, I say we go ahead and roll this interview with Pamela because there's some good stuff in there and I think folks will enjoy it.
[00:04:07] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Let's go.
[00:04:17] Speaker B: All right. Thanks so much for joining us, Pamela. We're so happy that we finally got to have you. Before we get too far in, do you want to just quickly introduce yourself for the listeners?
[00:04:24] Speaker C: Hi, my name is Pamela Stewart Martinez. I am the director of civic engagement and organizing here at weakness for environmental justice. Mom of seven. And, yeah, that's about it.
[00:04:39] Speaker B: Awesome. Thank you. So I figure we can go ahead and start off with a conversation that we've already kind of started relatively recently. You had mentioned to both Lanya and I that there's this weird pattern going on with folks who are registered as voters but not necessarily showing up to vote in primary elections. And obviously, it's very interesting to us think about what are some reasons that might be, but we know that you've been doing this for a while, trying to promote civic engagement. So what do you think's going on there? Why do you feel like there's this pattern of folks registering and not actually going to vote in primaries?
[00:05:13] Speaker C: Well, I feel like largely it's because a lot of folks feel as though their vote doesn't matter or they feel like the primary election isn't really the important race, that the general election in November is the important race. And although I love the people at the board of elections, I know their job is really hard, and I'm not sure how much funding the state and the city actually allocates for election matters. As far as advertising, I don't feel like it's advertised as heavily as the general election is.
That's where we need to, hopefully, in some form or fashion, they need to advertise these primary elections more.
[00:06:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:10] Speaker A: And I, you know, we've always had our conversation of him, and I always have our political conversation. She always gets on me for being a blank, which is someone who's not registered for a party either way. And so I, you know, living in New York, I can't vote in primary elections. And so, to me, they've never been on my radar. But, you know, ever since meeting and talking to Pamela a lot more, they have been on my radar and working with WEAC. But I definitely agree that I don't see them advertised at all. Not a lot of people talk about them. A lot of people wouldn't know the dates or times for any of these or dates for voting for primaries if it weren't places like WEAC nor issues like WEAC. Can you talk a little bit about the importance of a primary?
[00:06:52] Speaker C: The importance of the primary is that you have the opportunity to choose who you want to represent your political party at the general election. So when the general election does roll around, you don't have to feel as though I don't like either one of those candidates. You have that choice in the primary election, and by not participating in it, you actually give up your ability to choose who you want to see there and who you may want to be elected to office.
It definitely does narrow your choices, especially.
[00:07:31] Speaker A: At the local level.
[00:07:32] Speaker B: Right. Cause obviously, I know a lot of folks, when they think about the presidential primary, it feels so much bigger, often fewer candidates. But for some of these state and local elections, there's a lot of folks that could be on that ballot that you could be getting to that actual general election.
[00:07:46] Speaker C: Right, exactly. And I mean, even with the congressional races, like, I'm talking House of Representatives, how crucial is it that. That we ensure that we have the right people who sit in those seats, but also, we need to encourage people to run for office? That's another thing. If you don't like what you're seeing as far as candidates go, there should be some inspiration in finding leaders in your community who represent your community well. Whether you run yourself or you create a group of people together and look for someone within your group to take on that challenge and support them.
[00:08:32] Speaker B: Absolutely. Well, all that is great segue, because one of the main reasons that you're joining us here and now in this episode is because we have an upcoming state primary election here in New York. So I think that's something that a people should have on their radar if they didn't already. If you're registered and you didn't even know, you have something on your to do list now, make sure you know about that state primary election. But just for more context, what can folks, what should folks be expecting, like, going into this state primary? What kinds of things might they see on the ballot? And how can they kind of be thinking ahead about what to expect?
[00:09:06] Speaker C: I think that this time around, there's a lot of folks like challenging incumbents, and I think that's a wonderful thing. I do not think it should just be a clear pathway for incumbents to run. I mean, we live in a town that's primarily democratic, with a few areas that are republican strongholds. But for the most part, you know, most of the people in our New York City area, I would say, are Democrats and tend to vote in that way. So I think there are a lot of new candidates out there. So it's pretty interesting. And you have a lot of races that are very competitive in the 68th, very competitive race in the 70th assembly district, very competitive races. And so that's what I look for, and that's what I find exciting.
[00:10:05] Speaker A: And I think that, like, links to what you were saying about the importance of it. If you think about some of the political demographics of the areas that we look up, northern Manhattan and uptown, probably gonna skew more towards a democratic party. So your chance to really, truly choose a candidate is your state primary, especially because there's a lot of races that don't necessarily always have a republican challenger. And when they do, they don't often do as well in this part of the city. So, you know, kind of just links back to the importance of actually voting in a state primary if you can vote in state primaries and if you are registered.
[00:10:43] Speaker C: And our democratic party in New York City is a little bit different, in my opinion, because we have different types of Democrats, too. You have very conservative Democrats, and then you have Democrats who are more moderate, and then you have your extreme left Democrats. So we are like the full range within the Democratic Party here. You know, I don't know if other states, like, have that as much as we do in New York.
[00:11:19] Speaker A: That's a really good point as well. Even on the republican side as well, there are varieties of being a Democrat and varieties of being a Republican to the point where you're getting multiple candidates that represent these different factions.
[00:11:34] Speaker C: Well, see, maybe in other states where it's maybe more bred, you would have the variation, but here in New York, there is that, and it's so clear.
And what's really weird is I have some friends who were Republican, but now they're Democrats because they understand in order to win an election in certain districts, it might be a lot easier if you're a Democrat. Now, I'm not encouraging people to do that at all. You know, I have friends in all political parties because I like to hear different points of views. And, you know, at the end of the day, do you always agree with every member of your family?
[00:12:21] Speaker B: Absolutely not. I can tell you that right off the top of my head. No.
[00:12:25] Speaker A: Prepare for that one.
[00:12:25] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:12:26] Speaker C: But there's still family.
[00:12:27] Speaker B: That's true. Absolutely.
[00:12:29] Speaker A: Is there anything other than just the candidates themselves and representatives that are going to be on the ballot? That offhand, or is that the focus?
[00:12:35] Speaker C: That's pretty much the focus is the candidates and, you know, their platform.
I think people really need to look at what these candidates are planning to give back to the community or work on for the community. It should not be a situation where folks keep voting for people because of name recognition or voting for people because they got a turkey from them for Thanksgiving. You know, I mean, I don't want to belittle that because in, some of our folks are in need of support, and that turkey during that time period with all of the fixings is definitely appreciated, but it should not be because that person did this one thing because they were already elected to office and have the connections that you automatically, that's just who you're going to vote for.
You need to really look at all of the other issues involved.
[00:13:44] Speaker B: Well, I appreciate you mentioning that, Pamela, because it's a bit of a transition to one of the things that we wanted to ask you, which is, you know, for all the folks who are out there thinking about what to make of the primary ballot when they go to vote and thinking about the state and local level elections and the fact that, correct me if I'm wrong, the state level elections don't, there's not ranked choice voting, correct?
[00:14:05] Speaker C: No, not at all. I wish it was, but no.
[00:14:08] Speaker B: Yeah, but on that spirit, as folks are trying to think about how to make an informed decision, how can the average person who is maybe less in the weeds on the environmental justice work, how can they make an informed decision about which candidates are supportive of climate and environmental justice and which ones are not?
[00:14:27] Speaker C: Well, one thing is they can go to the candidate's website, do a Google search, research some of the candidates, but there are other sites as well, I would say definitely research people over the Internet. Go to candidate forums. I know we act as having a couple of candidates forums, and we've already had one. We had one in the 68th assembly district. We're going to be posting it on our website and our YouTube channel very soon. We have upcoming candidate forums on the 17 May and on the 18 May, and we are still working on a third one for the following week. I don't have a date yet for that one, but we will have one soon.
[00:15:15] Speaker B: Hopefully by the time folks are listening to this, we'll have that information. We can include it in the show notes. So check that information there. But speaking of candidates forums.
[00:15:23] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's a great segue. But I'll also add, too, I think another great way to kind of really understand where candidates platforms are is also looking at their social media.
[00:15:33] Speaker C: Oh, that's true.
[00:15:34] Speaker A: So what they say, sometimes they give speeches and they post them online, you'll be able to kind of see what they're, what they're all about through social media. Social media doesn't. Well, it does lie, but it does sometimes. But social media, if this is a case where social media is a good tool to use for something like that.
[00:15:51] Speaker B: You can even be a lurker like me. You don't even have to post anything.
[00:15:54] Speaker C: Nope.
[00:15:55] Speaker B: Just scroll around.
[00:15:55] Speaker A: Yeah, you don't have to post anything. Just lurk and just scroll through the candidates. But you mentioned another great way, our candidate forums here at weact which are awesome to always be a part of when I have been a part of them. But can you talk a little bit about we act candidates forum? Like, why do we actually have them? And what can people expect when they come to a candidates forum?
[00:16:17] Speaker C: So we have them because we want to make sure that our community members and our membership actually gets an opportunity to interact with the candidates.
But also we want to ensure that whoever wants to represent our community, they understand the issues that we bring to the forefront based on the needs of the community. We actually send out the questions about a week ahead of time to our candidates. And the reason that we send them the questions in advance is because we want well thought out answers, because we want to be able to hold the candidates feet to the fire when it comes to what's important to our community members and to our organization. We don't want someone to say, oh, well, I didn't quite understand.
I was a little confused.
You know, we want you to take time to think about it when you speak with our community members.
So that's very important to us. And, I mean, that's what you get when you come to one of our candidate forums. We expect the candidate to be prepared, and that is something that we expect them to be when they're in Albany as well. And I think by going to candidates forums, you get a picture of who you're, who's going to represent you and how they're going to react in a very, I mean, I can only imagine Albany is very difficult to navigate and to push for your community's needs. So, I mean, this is an indicator of how someone deals with stress as well. So I think it's pretty important to have them. And also, it's a way for the candidate to show that they're really interested in the community. I think it's bad when candidates do not come to candidate forums.
It's an opportunity to interact and show your community that you care. If you can't show up at a candidates forum, not a debate, but a forum where you're being asked questions and not necessarily competing with other folks around you, if you can't show up for that, then how can you really show up for your community?
[00:18:48] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:18:49] Speaker A: And also, I'm curious, for people who want to know about the forums and how they operate, is there an opportunity for people to actually ask questions themselves?
[00:19:01] Speaker C: There is. We do take questions from the community. We have them write them on index cards so that they're not longer than, I would say, 30 seconds. Because sometimes when you give people the mic, it turns into a monologue.
[00:19:19] Speaker A: We know all know about being on mic over here at uptown chat.
[00:19:23] Speaker B: It's something about the power that it does to you when someone hands you a microphone. You're like, I have the floor. Listen to me. Yeah, but I get that.
[00:19:31] Speaker C: Yeah. So, I mean, they give us the index cards, we read the questions, and the candidate answers the questions, and that has proven to be really great.
[00:19:42] Speaker A: It's also a really great test for that candidate because, you know, they got some of our specific questions ahead of time, but this is a time for them to have to think on their feet to talk about issues that are really important to the community. And a lot of them, a lot of people show up. Our members are really strong, and they're very educated, so they show up. They come with the questions that are. That are going to be kind of difficult for some of these candidates.
I love a good difficult question to watch a candidate squirm a little bit in their chairs, one beat of sweat.
[00:20:09] Speaker B: Just dripping down their forehead.
[00:20:10] Speaker A: And, you know, I think it's really important that we does these candidates forums because we really want to emphasize the climate, environmental justice aspect of all of the work that we do and how it intersects with everything. So I love when a member has a question about what are you going to do about flooding? And that's going on in the city, and I live in a flood prone area, or what can you do in infrastructure? And really making them think about things that I think they don't expect to hear on a campaign trail kind of situation. But this is the time where you're going to get those tough questions about environment.
[00:20:42] Speaker C: And, you know, what I also love is that we're also empowering folks who normally feel like they don't have that voice to actually speak to an elected official or get their point across. We're giving them that opportunity, which is awesome. And most of the candidates who come to the candidate forum, they stay afterwards.
[00:21:05] Speaker B: Yeah. To Lonnie's point, I think this is a really interesting. Again, we are an environmental justice organization, and this is an environmental justice podcast. So just kind of one of the things I think is helpful in thinking about what these candidates forums look like. Do you have a sense of what some of the kind of northern Manhattan environmental justice issues that you might anticipate folks either having questions about or addressing or things that you feel like are kind of on the radar right now that you anticipate folks may be addressing or responding to?
[00:21:34] Speaker C: Well, I mean, one thing that I know has been something that we act, has been working on with our community members for years, maybe decades, is childhood lead poisoning. And I mean, ensuring that we reduce the numbers because we have really high numbers here in New York state. And so it is important that any candidate who runs for office addresses this because it will affect a child's life well into adulthood. And it is super important for them to address issues like that that affect our community more heavily than other communities. So elected officials need to act as advocates when they're voting on legislation, when they're voting on budgeting to ensure that these funds come back to our community and meet the needs of the community. So that's one thing.
I would also say the safe cosmetic and personal care products, I think that's super important as well. We have a bill related to that, and we're really looking for champions for that as well. You can't say that you represent us and you're not trying to protect us from campaigns out there targeting people of color that live in our community with products that are not safe for us. You have to be a fighter and go up there and fight for community members health and well being. And so that's something super important that our community, community members are concerned about. And also accessible transportation. Absolutely, you know, is super important. And let's not even talk about, like, extreme heat.
I mean, how many folks are afraid to turn on their air conditioners in the summer.
[00:23:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:41] Speaker C: Because of the cost related to that.
These are all issues that our legislators, whoever, our champions, our elected champions are going to need to be fighters and fight for this for us.
[00:23:59] Speaker B: Thank you. You summarized that really well. I feel like that's such a little teaser for anyone who was on the fence about, oh, I want to go, maybe not. I was like, here you go. You got a snapshot into what you can expect if you go. So that's some good stuff.
[00:24:11] Speaker A: If you have questions prepared for the candidates, for sure, when it comes to some of those things and asking about them, I think it's really important. And for anyone listening, if you really want to know, if you felt like you don't, weren't quite sure what some of these things are, how they're related. This is a great time to sign up for Weak's newsletter to get this information to come to our membership meeting. Also, check out Weac.org policy. That's we're going to have our policy agenda, and so we'll have all of the things we're working on state level to where you can really get informed and you can start asking these questions to these candidates as you see them campaigning, you can really, you can ask them about safer beauty products and see what their response is so that you can make sure you're ensuring that the person that you're voting for, the person that you are thinking about, that you come in really informed with the issues that are going on.
[00:24:56] Speaker B: Absolutely. So, but before we let you go, Pamela, any last thoughts, comments or things you want to share with us about what folks might be thinking about for the state primary or just kind of voting stuff in general that you think is important?
[00:25:09] Speaker C: Okay. So number one, please use early voting. Yes, it is super, super important that more people utilize early voting because if more people use it, they'll have more early voting sites and it won't be such a distance for some folks to get to the early voting sites. And you never know what could wind up happening on election day. So I really want people to utilize early voting more. So, and also, if you have not registered to vote, please register to vote. It is very, very important and you have until the first day of early voting to register to vote. Now, mind you, I, please don't wait until the last day to do this, but you have until that day. And you can drop it off at your local board of elections in your borough and they can make sure it's inputted right away. And then you can go to the polling site and vote.
[00:26:11] Speaker B: Absolutely. And we'll make sure that all the information, I think all that's,
[email protected]. Vote. So we'll make sure there's a link in the show notes for folks to click on that and find that information. But thank you so much, Pam. I feel like there's so much that is important to know when people are preparing to go vote. And so I feel like we covered some important stuff. So thanks for joining us and we hope to have you on again soon.
[00:26:34] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:26:35] Speaker C: Oh, thank you. Oh, we should do something on the electoral process for the general election because there are folks who believe it is not important to vote because the electoral college makes all the decisions and that is not true. And we need to get people out to ensure that they vote.
[00:26:58] Speaker B: There we go. That's a teaser for a future episode. So yeah, stay tuned. Thanks, Pamela.
[00:27:02] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:27:03] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:27:03] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:27:05] Speaker A: Thanks for listening. If you liked this episode, make sure to rate and review the show on whatever platform you listen on. If you have thoughts about the show, we encourage you to reach out to us with your thoughts and
[email protected].
[00:27:15] Speaker B: Dot and check out weact on Facebook at weact four, EJ. That's w e a C t f o R E J on Instagram X and YouTube at weact four, EJ. That's w e a c t, number four, eJ. And check out our website, weact.org, for more information about environmental justice. And weact.org vote for all the voting specific information that you need. So with that, make sure to get out and vote.
