Report back on Get Out the Vote work in Florida
In Florida, the Gainesville chapter of NWL worked to get out the vote in the seven weeks leading up to midterm election. Our members knocked on nearly a thousand doors. NWL’s work and the work of other movement groups contributed to an unprecedented turnout of Florida voters. NWL also loudly voiced our support for the election of Andrew Gillum for governor and our hope that Constitutional Amendment 4 would pass; Amendment 4 restores the right to vote to Floridians disenfranchised by a felony conviction. On election night, we were able to celebrate the quick victory of Amendment 4, but we were dismayed by the news that Trump puppet, Ron DeSantis, was elected governor.
Then, in the following days, we learned that many Floridian’s ballots were not counted and that some mail-in ballots were rejected. As lawsuits were filed across the state to contest rules on mail-in ballot signatures and whether deadlines would be extended to count all ballots – NWL organizers jumped into work on the ground to notify voters who mail-in ballot was rejected, to push the correction of as many ballots as possible before the deadline. The election was on Tuesday, November 6th, and mail-in “provisional” ballots had to be corrected by 5pm on Thursday, November 8th. NWL put out a call for volunteers over social media, and the turnout was incredible! In Gainesville, the number of volunteers meant that least five offices needed to be opened — and NWL’s office was able to open our office for volunteers to use.
During following week it was difficult to keep updated on changes in the election and subsequent recount of three different races (the races for U.S. Senator, Florida Governor, and Agriculture Commissioner). A court granted an extension to correct signatures; a manual recount was ordered for U.S. Senator and Agriculture Commissioner; then governor, Rick Scott, recused himself from the process of certifying an election that he was a candidate in (Gov. Scott ran for U.S. Senate).
In the end, officials declared that the results of the election were that DeSantis had won the governor’s seat (in addition Rick Scott won the seat for U.S. Senate and Nikki Fried).
Again and again, we heard that the turmoil following the election was due to record turnouts and individual incompetence. Florida’s electoral system has failed voters before and we demand better! We need funding and support for election infrastructure that ensures that our election system isn't overloaded by too many of us voting. We should expect that 100% of eligible voters are registered and can easily vote. We should expect that deadlines for voting results give enough time to realistically count every ballot. We need polling stations prepared for 100% of registered voters to vote, election day to be a paid holiday, and neutral monitoring of our elections, before we can be confident that those so-called results are accurate.
Going forward, we have immediate work to implement Amendment 4. Organizers are needed to alert new eligible voters that they can register and to protect new eligible voters right to register to vote (If you are interested in that work, you can contact organizers at secondchancesfl.org). By increasing the number of registered voters, the results of our elections can better represent Florida voters.
In addition, we will continue to look for opportunities to demand improvements in how our elections are run. While we must do more than vote to make change, a necessary and baseline first step to improving our lives is to have fair and accurate elections. When all of our votes aren’t counted and those who are eligible are prevented from voting, elections don’t demonstrate the will of the people. Without fair elections, feminists can’t build on and cement gains that social justice movements have won.