The 1528Podcast Inner City Voter Registration Tour

The 1528 Podcast Inner City Voter Registration and Absentee Ballot Tour

2020 has brought on many challenges for the nation but especially the black community after trying to cope and maintain some normalcy after seeing the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and most recently, Jacob Blake. As discussed in the third episode of our podcast titled “My greatest fear is that I, too, will become a #hashtag”, the entire world has galvanized through protests, demands for social justice and police reform, and now by placing a renewed focus on the upcoming presidential election on November 3rd... but there is much more progress needed to impact true change.

I, being frustrated and not knowing how to channel the emotions I was experiencing as a black man living through this social unrest, knew that I needed to act, and fast at that, if I wanted to have a real impact. My initial idea for this initiative was birthed after a call with my brothers on August 28th, 2020, where we discussed the actions that a regular person like myself could take that would be helpful- that initial idea has grown a lot since then. Along those lines, I want to send a huge thank you to my friends and the other Co-hosts on The 1528 Podcast: Bennie Williams, Cedrice Bennett, & Justin Thaxton. As soon as I shared my ideas, they agreed to join me on this mission, and then the idea grew into something much more impactful. My plan went from me just making a handful of weekend trips to swing states into what we have now, which is an entire five-state, ten city, 30-50 day Voter Drive in the inner cities of states that have had a historically low voter turnout for people of color or are expected to play a big role in this presidential election.

With voter registration deadlines approaching as soon as the first week in October in Ohio and Illinois, we are looking to hit the road as early as September 7th, with the finances being secured by then.

Each day we will assemble our registration drive outside of high traffic businesses such as grocery stores or malls and have three internet-connected tablets or computers, two of which will register voters online and one for those to request absentee ballots online. We will also have traditional paper registration forms at each stop for those that prefer that option and also state-specific voting literature to help educate anyone that needs it. Finally, we will look to team up with local Greek letter organizations (Divine 9), HBCU Alumni Chapters, and other organizations to help get voters to the polls on election day and to work the tables during the drive. To help accomplish this, we will have a separate form at each stop for voters with accessibility challenges. After the drive, we will then send their contact information to the chapter (s) that we partner with to reach out to those voters to help ensure that they get to the polls or request and return an absentee ballot.

Donations will fund this trip and make sure we are doing all that we can to be the change that we want to see. The overwhelming majority of our expenses are for providing transportation and lodging for us on this 30-50 day trip. Ideally, we will rent an RV for travel, lodging, visibility of the voter registration drive tables, and to have a workspace inside for those of us that will work our day jobs remotely while the rest of us manage the registration tables during the day. Additional funding goes towards the equipment and supplies for the registration tables, mailing supplies for those taking paper ballots, equipment to ensure a COVID safe environment for those taking part, and meals.  

The five battleground states that we will spend 3-5 days in each city are Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and either Illinois or Minnesota, depending on time. In Pennsylvania, where the 2016 presidential election was decided by only 44,000 votes, we will focus on Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. In Ohio, which has been arguably the most up-for-grabs state in every election since 1996 (until the last election when Donald Trump won) we will stop in Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, Cleveland, and Toledo. We will visit Detroit and Flint in Michigan, which was one of the closest races in the 2016 presidential election and was decided by less than 11,000 votes. We will also spend a few days in Milwaukee, Wisconsin since that state in 2016 was decided by less than a 1% margin, less than 28,000 total votes. Finally, depending on if everything stays on schedule, we will visit either Chicago, Illinois, or Minneapolis, Minnesota -which is up for grabs this election after 19 counties were flipped in Trump’s favor in the 2016 presidential race.

We cannot say it enough that this is likely the greatest election of our lifetime and we are trying to do all that we can to get active and impact as much change as we can in areas that will push the needle the most. This issue is very important to me, so even if we can’t secure the funding for this initiative, we will make this happen... even if it means me taking out a personal loan to cover the difference financially.

With that being said I truly appreciate everyone that took the time to read this, share it online with their friends and coworkers, reach out to volunteer, companies that sponsor us on any level, and especially those individuals that help to make this come to life through donations.

Thank you so much and see you all at the polls on November 3rd!

Andre Walton
~A Voteless People Is A Hopeless People ~