[00:00:17] 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. Your co host, Jaron.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: And today we're going to talk about voting.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: Yep. That's right. Voting. And if you're saying to yourself, wait, it's only March, why would we be talking about voting?
[00:00:36] Speaker A: That's because we've got not one, but two primary elections in New York this year before the general election in November.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: Yeah. So that's a grand total of three times to get out and cast your vote.
[00:00:49] Speaker A: That's right. And to help us understand what we can expect, we'll be joined by our very own taisha Smalls, Wex community organizing coordinator. But before we get to that, Jerry, can you tell us what we act's mission statement is?
[00:01:01] Speaker B: I sure can. Wex'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. So let's jump right into this. Talking about voting. Thanks so much for joining us, Taisha.
[00:01:19] Speaker C: Thank you for having me.
[00:01:20] Speaker B: We're just talking about how it's been over six months. We had you on the show.
[00:01:25] Speaker C: I know, far too long. But that's okay. I'm back now.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: Yay. And to talk about such an important and timely topic, obviously, voting. And just like Lonnie said, we have three opportunities, right. For folks to be exercising their civic duty and to cast their vote in an election this year. So, Taisha, I know that you're kind of the expert here when it comes to elections and voting stuff, so, do you want to tell us a little bit about what we got going on with elections this year?
[00:01:51] Speaker C: Yes. So we actually have two primaries and one general. So the first primary is actually April 2, which is our presidential primary that I hope everyone has been following. And then our next one is our state primary, which is going to be June 25. So, basically, we just have our regular primary elections that's coming up. So it was actually split between the two. So instead of combining all of it together, we have one focusing on the primary election and the other one focusing on state. So this year, we're focused on state instead. So, state assembly and state senate.
[00:02:31] Speaker B: Do you know why it's split like this is always like this? Is there always two separate primaries, or is it just this year that this is happening?
[00:02:39] Speaker C: Normally, it doesn't happen this way, but it would just happen. They voted on it, and made it April 2 instead of confusing the two, because this is a bigger primary year.
[00:02:50] Speaker B: And here we are. And like you said, April 2, June 25. I feel like we just can't say those dates enough times. People just need to lock them into their brains. And my understanding is that polling locations are open 06:00 a.m. To 09:00 p.m.. Right. It's a pretty big window.
[00:03:04] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:03:05] Speaker B: I'm one of those people who I'm like, I want to start my day off right. I want to go get my vote in as early as possible and wear my sticker around so people know I did it. Where's your sticker at?
[00:03:13] Speaker A: I've been a fan of the early voting that we've got going on.
That early voting for the April 2 primary has already started this past Saturday on March 23 and runs through March 30. So make sure you get your vote out if you haven't already done it.
[00:03:31] Speaker B: Yeah. And if you have, thank you. Good job for doing your civic duty. We appreciate you. And a little bit more info about the June 25 primary, which will be the state. The state primary. Right.
We'll actually be doing a whole separate episode, joined by we act director of civic engagement and organizing, Pamela Stewart Martinez, who's going to talk a little bit more about what's going on with that primary closer to the date. That episode is going to come out in May sometime. So you can have all that information ready and at your disposal when it comes time for that second primary election. But, Lonnie, where should folks look in this time, as we're all starting to think about voting? Where should folks turn to for information about voting?
[00:04:15] Speaker A: Yeah, we made it very simple. If you go to weact.org slash vote, you'll be able to get all of the important dates on our website.
[00:04:21] Speaker B: Cool. Something else I think that's an important note that maybe, Taish, you can say more about is that New York actually has what's called closed primaries. Right. Can you say a little bit more about what that means?
[00:04:31] Speaker C: So closed primary is basically you have to be registered to a party. So either Republican or Democrat, you have to be registered on one of those party lines to actually vote in the primary.
[00:04:43] Speaker B: Thank you. And I was curious about this more, too, because this is something that was new to me when I registered to vote in New York. And also, I became more active of a voter when I moved to New York. I looked more into this, and it sounds like this is something that happened more recently as of December 2021, actually, where New York recognized four specific political parties, conservative, democratic, Republican, and working families parties. And we have this closed primary system. It's just weird to me because I feel like if I was someone who didn't know that, I'd just be sitting there waiting, like, so what do my, where's my ballot? And if I hadn't registered for a specific party, I'd be like, well, whoops.
Yeah.
[00:05:23] Speaker A: And I believe to find out if you are registered to a party, I think it's actually on your voter registration card.
[00:05:30] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:05:31] Speaker B: Cool, good to know. So for folks who didn't know that, that's important information to prepare and getting ready for your vote. But beyond being election time, we're still in women's history month. So we wanted to continue as part of this episode, we wanted to continue the stroll through history that we started in our last episode and take a look at some women who were champions for voting rights here in the United States over the last several decades. Because without them, we wouldn't really have this voting opportunities that we do today. Right?
[00:06:04] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:06:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:05] Speaker A: And just to give a little bit of historic background, that during the 19th and 20th centuries, a lot of black women played a very active role in the struggle for universal suffrage, which means that voting rights for everyone. Up until that point, there was pretty much only one type of person who could vote. And I think a lot of people guess who those people were? It was mostly white men. And even then, there were some changes that had gone on where it was white men who could only own land. And there were some other changes, but until that point, that were the only people who could actually vote in the US. So a lot of white suffrages largely ignored some of the contributions that african american suffrages.
Oh, God, I don't like the word suffrages too many times.
[00:06:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:49] Speaker A: What's another?
[00:06:50] Speaker B: Weren't we going to look into where that word comes from? Why is it suffrage? The word suffrage comes from Latin, suffragium, which initially meant a voting tablet, a ballot, a vote, or the right to vote. So in case anyone was curious. I know we were before we started this episode. Now we know. But anyway, what's another term for that?
[00:07:11] Speaker A: I guess voting advocates.
[00:07:13] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:07:14] Speaker A: So a lot of white voting advocates largely ignored some of the contributions that african american voting advocates contributed to where we are now, to where we all have the right to vote. Which is why we still, to this day, kind of mostly associate the women's right to vote with someone like Susan B. Anthony, who did a lot of great work for women's suffrage. But there are quite a few black women who played a key role in voting rights for everyone. And just to let people know, to remind people, if you don't know, the 15th amendment from 1869 granted african american men the right to vote. And then it wasn't until 1919, with the 19th amendment, great way to remember that it granted women the right to vote. And that was all women were able to vote. And so after that amendment, everyone had the opportunity at that point to vote. But that does not mean that there were still not tactics to try to make sure that folks who were not white men didn't vote. There were literary tests, there were poll taxes, meaning that you had to pay to register, which disenfranchised a lot of voters who couldn't afford that. And there were also just, like, intimidation tactics, especially at the local level, of kind of white supremacist groups would post up at polling sites and intimidate voters and things like that. So there was a lot that went on with voter suppression. So it wasn't just that people got the right to vote and everything was fine. There still had to be a lot of advocacy that went on even after that.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: I really appreciate you bringing up that point, because that whole idea of something is passed as an amendment, as a bill, whatever, and then reality kicks in, and, like, this is what all these other forces that are shaping something happening that is so represented in all the work that we do in environmental justice. Let's say a bill passes, and then we have to do all the work that goes into making sure that's enforced properly and that it's carried out in the way that it was supposed to, and that all the other ripple effects where people try to get around it or to exclude people. XYZ that it's carried out the way that it was intended to be, just in the same way that the same struggle has happened for these amendments as well. Tysha, do you have any thoughts, or how does this show up for some of the work that we do now in terms of making sure that folks are exercising their right to vote? How does that show up in your work?
[00:09:38] Speaker C: Well, it comes in a lot with me tabling, because we do voter registration, especially a lot of people who come from different areas, like New Jersey or Connecticut, and we talk to them and explain vote. If you vote, you have to vote in the current city and explain that. Also phone banking. We do a lot of phone banking and door knocking, where when we make phone calls, a lot of times we get residents who might not fully understand what was the purpose of me voting.
And that was a big part, especially when we did the environmental Bond act two years ago. We had to explain why you had to vote. If you don't vote, you don't get the opportunity to say, oh, access, clean water, clean air, green jobs. So that was a big thing that we've been pushing.
Yeah, that's a lot of things that I do.
[00:10:38] Speaker A: I guess I always think about the people who have to register when they first turn 18. Right. That's kind of like you're not automatically enrolled in anything. So I always think about voter registration in that sense. But I forget about people who move from other places and they move to New York because I've never had to do an absentee ballot because, you know, lived in New York for voting. And so I never thought about people who may like that process might be kind of time consuming or complicated or I don't know how people actually do that. So getting people to actually re register to vote in the state that they're in so they can also participate locally in civic engagement.
[00:11:14] Speaker B: Yeah. So to this point, about these other barriers and challenges, even though you have legally the right to vote, thanks to these different amendments, the logistics of knowing how and where and when, those are some of the barriers that still keep people who have historically not had the right to vote from exercising that right. And luckily, we have Taisha and other folks who are on our civic engagement team who are helping to address that. But I want to circle back a little bit more to what you talked about with the environmental Bond act. But before we do that, I know Lonnie had some specific women of color who you had picked out that we wanted to highlight, who have continued to make contributions. We'll work our way backwards from history, essentially. We'll go through some of these key figures, and we'll make our way to the current present moment where we are here with you, Taisha. So, Alani, do you want to tell us a little bit more about some of these women that you specifically picked out who were really pivotal in helping us achieve the voting rights that we have?
[00:12:10] Speaker A: Yeah, like I mentioned earlier, a lot of people think about voting and voting rights with, and they associate them with maybe, like Susan B. Anthony or even, which, you know, those are kind of common names that we know really well. But I wanted to highlight some folks that are probably a little lesser known. And so I want to start with Mary Church Terrell. She was american civil rights activist, journalist, teacher, and one of the first african american women to earn a college degree. Terrell addressed the double burden of african american women were facing in the suffrage movement. So Terrell believed that when compared to Euro american women, african american women had to overcome not only their sex, but their race as well.
[00:12:51] Speaker B: Awesome. Thank you. There's also Fannie Lou Hamer, who is a leader in the civil rights movement. Fannie Lou Hamer organized voter registration drives and co founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to fight for voting rights and the elimination of poll taxes, literacy tests, and local government acts of coercion that prevent voting from communities of color and poor white communities. So just trying to, again, alleviate some of those barriers, which we already talked about, how important that is to make it as easy as possible for folks to actually exercise their right to vote. Taisha, do you want to tell us a little bit about Dolores Huerta?
[00:13:27] Speaker C: Sure. So Dolores Huerta was a labor leader and civil rights activist. Doris Huluta, co founder of the United Farm Worker Union, has been a fierce advocate for voting rights and civic engagement, particularly within the Latino community.
[00:13:43] Speaker B: Cool. Thank you. I feel like we kind of covered different dimensions of the contribution to help move forward this right to vote across those three different folks. And obviously what they did set the stage for some of the struggles and challenges that we see today, which has led to some of the important leaders that we see now in this movement of making sure that folks have the right to vote. So there's a couple of names that folks are probably familiar with, or if you're not, that are kind of in this space in a more modern sense. We have Stacey Abrams, Maya Wiley, and, of course, AOC Alexandri Ocasio Cortez. So for folks who don't know about them, Lonnie, do you want to start us off and tell us a little bit about Stacey Abrams? Yeah.
[00:14:27] Speaker A: Stacey Abrams has definitely been kind of like a modern political figure who has been moving a lot of the voting rights and making sure they're protecting voting rights within Georgia. There are still ways that a lot of elected officials try to make sure that certain people don't vote.
And she's known for most of her work in Georgia, but then also became just an advocate for voting rights nationally, including here in New York City, through organizations like the Fair Fight Action.
[00:14:56] Speaker B: And I also mentioned Maya Wiley, who is another civil rights activist, a lawyer, and former counselor to Mayor Bill de Blasio. And Wiley has been engaged in efforts to promote voting rights and civic engagement, particularly focusing on communities of color, so very much inside the space that we work in as an organization. And, of course, there's AOC.
[00:15:20] Speaker C: Yes, AOC who is currently the congresswoman for New York State 14th congressional district, which is located in the Bronx now, you know.
So, yeah, she covers most of the Bronx.
Cortez has been promising advocate for voter engagement, encouraging young people and marginalized communities to participate in political process.
[00:15:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I feel like of those three, of course, AOC was the one that stood out to me the most. That's one that I was most familiar with. But it's nice to bring up some of these other names that folks maybe don't hear as often, especially as we're talking about this issue of voting rights and the people who are making it happen. Right. But, Taisha, you mentioned a little earlier, and I want to take a little bit more time to hear about your work in this space. We've covered a little bit of the historical lens, some of the key figures, but you spent a lot of time making sure folks know where and when and how to exercise their right to vote. You talked about the important campaign that we had last year about the environmental Bond act and making sure people knew about it. Can you tell us a little bit more about what that work looks like in terms of motivating people to actually vote? Because most of us know that. Okay, sure, it's important, but actually doing it is another thing.
[00:16:37] Speaker C: Yeah, I know that most people will be like, oh, just go out and vote and don't really express. But when we did that campaign, we really talked about where it was on the ballot, and then we explained, because that was another thing. We got a lot of questions about that.
What does that mean? What does that entail? We had to really explain to everyone what that means and how is it going to benefit you and what's the current situation, which a lot of people didn't know about. So that happened a lot, really, with phone calls. Like I said, when I was tabling, like talking to people about registration, I was explaining that it's the second ballot measure, I'm sorry, the first ballot measure on the ballot. And we had to really explain that. And there was a lot of questions. And we actually, with that campaign, we had the highest voting on that ballot, I think, in Manhattan, altogether clear marker of success.
[00:17:44] Speaker B: That's an easy thing to point out and be like, see, we were out there. We were doing this thing. I think that some of those things that you mentioned, like tabling and phone canvassing, phone banking, are the things that people don't think about when it comes to an organization, like react, being in the community, motivating people to get out there and vote. Can you unpack what that phone canvassing, phone bank, that's something that, again, I've seen happen. What does that look like? How do we engage members as a part of that process?
[00:18:14] Speaker C: So, like the process of phone. Yeah. So basically we get a list. We call residents in northern Manhattan in these areas, these districts, and we pretty much are calling them to be like, hey, this is like a reminder, in a way. It's a reminder. Elections are coming up and we're just giving them information. So we're just like, this is what's going on. Just go out to vote. If they have questions, we can be on the phone with them and explain them. We have a sheet of every information, especially when it comes down to where their polling site is and where to go.
[00:18:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I feel like that's one of the things that's always, I have to check every single time I vote is my polling site because it has changed a couple of times over the years. Not even a couple of times, multiple times, and I haven't moved. So I think that's a really important, just key thing of knowing where do you go to actually cast your ballot? And you talked about also being able to understand the ballot, what's on it and who's on the ballot, because sometimes there's more than just a couple of names on there that you have to check a box on. There's like multiple things on a ballot. And I think it's really important that people understand why they're voting for those things and who they're voting for.
[00:19:27] Speaker B: Yeah. And so many of the things that you just mentioned in terms of the kind of information that you're sharing with folks and reminding them when and that they need to vote are the kinds of things that any one of us can and should be doing with the people in our lives, just reminding people who we are friends with that we live nearby. Like, hey, don't forget there's an election next week or there's an election coming up or there's an election happening, like tomorrow.
Do you know where you're voting? Just asking those kinds of questions and making sure people know that information. Obviously, we're doing an organizational level, so we're reaching a lot of people and we're having a big impact. But at the end of the day, that's something we should all be doing in addition to actually voting ourselves, is reminding the folks in our lives that, hey, you do that wearing that sticker and being like, hey, you see this? Do you want one of these cool stickers? Go do it now.
[00:20:22] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:20:23] Speaker B: What are some other aspects of this work of the civic engagement piece of weact that are important part of the process and things that we do as an organization, just like making sure people are engaged in the process.
[00:20:36] Speaker C: So it's kind of a shameless plug because we have a membership meeting coming up in April. I think everybody should come and join. It's our candidates form. So that's another way that we do that. Also, we do get volunteers to do canvassing for us because we're a department, but we can do but so much. But we also get extra help from time to time that goes and help us make the phone calls, go outside to door, knock on doors, and just give them pamphlets or information and be like, hey, just to let you know that time again is primaries coming up and if they have any questions. I know a lot of people are very scared about that, but it's like we're not telling you who to vote for. We're just like, don't forget, because especially with everything going on with the primary election, with the two primary, with the presidential, the June 1 is actually slipping under the cracks, too. So that's a couple of ways that we do it. So we get people.
[00:21:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:42] Speaker A: Good old fashioned going door to door and door knocking. I feel like it's so effective, and a lot of people who may be listening don't realize that's still a thing that people do. But it's probably one of the most effective ways because we think in this digital social media age that that's the only way we get our information or that's the only way that we get involved. This, now that we act, is out here, door to door knocking on doors, making sure you understand that you're informed.
[00:22:06] Speaker C: Yep. That good old gasroots organizing.
[00:22:10] Speaker B: Yeah. And for anyone who's familiar with the history of weact, that's so much embedded with how weact became the organization that it is today. From Peggy and other folks who were there in the early days, just going door to door, talking to people and telling folks like, hey, this is what's going on in your community. This is where we're meeting. Be there. And it's the same thing with reminding people to vote. It's all about numbers, getting folks to know what's happening, where it's happening, when to be, and what to do. So I appreciate talking about that. Any other things that you think are important to highlight about our civic engagement work? We'll make sure to include a link in the show notes for folks to register and come to the next membership meeting so they can learn about the candidates forum. Do you want to just say a couple more words about what that looks like and what folks can expect and when they show up for that?
[00:22:57] Speaker C: Well, for the candidates forum.
So we'll have all the candidates that's going to be on the ballot from each district. We have it for East Harlem, which is assembly 60 eigth, west Central Harlem Assembly 70th and 69th. So we actually focusing in Upper Manhattan this time. Also, we're going to be focusing also in Senate, I think. Assembly 71st, 72nd, Senate 30th and.
[00:23:27] Speaker A: Yeah, these are state elections, right?
[00:23:29] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:23:29] Speaker C: So these are state.
[00:23:30] Speaker A: So we're prepping everybody for when they do this before the state primaries, people are going to be able to have a chance to hear what the candidates have to say in their platforms.
[00:23:38] Speaker B: Yes. So we've got your to do list right here in front of you right now. Finish this podcast. Episode two, go vote in the presidential primary. Three, register for the Candidates forum membership meeting in April. And four, stay tuned. Check out is your, that's your homework after you finish this episode. Yes. To maximize your civic engagement. Yeah, we'll give you a civic engagement score. We'll give you a gold star. Well, thank you so much, Taisha. We appreciate you joining us and making sure that we're keeping all of our listeners civically engaged. And we can't wait to have you again on in six to seven months. And you're at your schedule, your scheduled visit.
This is like a dental visit for you. You got to show up for your cleaning every six months. Yeah. Hopefully this is more enjoyable than that.
[00:24:28] Speaker C: Yeah, way more true.
[00:24:30] Speaker A: Thanks for listening. Once again, make sure to check the show notes for important links, including the registration link for the upcoming weak membership meeting featuring a candidate's forum with state officials. And check out weak slash vote for important dates and information about the upcoming elections.
[00:24:48] Speaker B: If you like 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 suggestions at.
[00:24:57] Speaker A:
[email protected] check out weact on Facebook at weactfordj. That's weactforej. And also on Instagram X and YouTube at weactford. That's w E a C T, number four, E J. And check out our website, weact.org, for more information about environmental justice.
[00:25:17] Speaker B: Until next time, go vote.
