by Hollis Wormsby, Jr.
Mid-term elections are notorious for their lack of voter turnout and projections are that this mid- term election will be no different. In Alabama the race for Governor is the top of the ballot race and to the extent that it is all but a foregone conclusion that Bentley will easily win re-election, that race is not generating much excitement.
In this area, Congressional District 6 is expected to go easily to Palmer, Sewell is running essentially unopposed, and this region is so partisan in its politics that for the most part all of the meaningful votes were cast in the primaries.
I consider myself an Independent, but one thing that stands out in this race as far as people of color are concerned, is that the right wing is not campaigning for the Black vote, they are working to make sure that we don’t vote. They are doing this on two fronts; on one front they tell you you have nothing or no one to vote for, and on the other hand they engage in voter suppression strategies designed to make it more difficult for you to vote.
First of all we have plenty to vote for, including here in Jefferson County. Even if you are not excited about the Democratic candidate for Governor, and you are a Democrat you should still be excited about voting because of the other races your vote can impact.
In 2008 when President Barack Obama was first elected, it was assumed that Senator McCain would carry the State of Alabama, which he did, but in Jefferson County the historical voter turnout to vote for the First African American President in our nation’s history, also meant that Shantae Owens, and Katrina Ross were swept into office over better financed Republican incumbents because of the number of African Americans who went to the polls and pulled the straight Democratic lever.
Voter turnout is also important because of the way it allows for parties to allocate resources. If a party doesn’t have to campaign for our votes because they feel they can count on us to just stay home then they can allocate the resources they might have spent courting our vote to court votes elsewhere. Here in Birmingham where our most recent turnout was less than 20 percent, it becomes easy for a candidate for Statewide Office to say I don’t really need to invest resources in Birmingham, they are not going to vote for me, but in point of fact they are not going to vote for anybody, so I’ll just worry about someplace else.
Voter turnout is important because it keeps our elected officials honest. Of course we would like to believe that all of our officials have integrity and will do the right thing simply because it is the right thing, but in the absence of that, having to face election is the ultimate balance sheet challenge for an elected official. We should not lessen that challenge by choosing not to exercise our hard earned right to cast a ballot.
No matter how you feel about the most recent election in the City of Mobile it shows what happens when one group turns out to vote and another does not. Sam Jones was the African American Mayor of Mobile for two terms in a city where the demographics are something like 54 percent African American, 46 percent Caucasian. And yet Jones lost his re-election bid because an overwhelming majority of Caucasian voters turned out at the polls, while turnout at African American polling stations was tepid at best.
This election will decide who controls the United States Senate. This election will decide who leads this state for the next four years. This election will decide some of the Judges who will be hearing criminal cases as well as presiding over Family Court cases like divorce and child custody. This election is too important to sit at home and leave the decision to others.
Or at least that’s the way I see it.
(Do you have a question or comment on anything shared in this space? Look me up on Facebook at Facebook.com/HollisWormsby or email me at hjwormsby@aol.com .)
