CULTIVATING COMPASSION
Voting as Resistance... ...continued from page 9
Outreach Coalition is expanding its reach deeper into pockets of the community and wider into the Western North Carolina (WNC) region. What we’ve found during this time is that simply talking with low-likelihood voters about voting, while providing straightforward information people need in order to vote, increases the likelihood that they will actually cast a ballot. They’ve talked with someone who be - lieves their voice matters. They’ve connected the act of voting to issues that matter to them. And they’ve gotten helpful info they didn’t have before, about voter ID, sample ballots, early voting, mail-in voting, and more. Why Outreach Matters Our state’s close-election pattern continues. In 2020, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley lost re-election by only 412 votes statewide. Even with the high turnout that year, there were thousands who didn’t cast a vote for that office, and hundreds of thousands who didn’t vote at all. Two years later, after many of us had worked so hard against gerrymandering and had finally won fair maps, we ended up with seven Democrats and seven Republicans in Congress, exactly what you’d expect from this purple state. Unfortunately, many voters that year also let slip through two candidates for state Supreme Court who didn’t reflect North Carolinians’ preference for fair maps. That court immediately proceeded to overturn precedent, determining that partisan gerrymandering was, in fact, just fine under the state consti - tution. We now have 10 Republicans and four Democrats in Congress. That imbalance is expected to shift to 11 Republicans this year, follow- ing a more extreme gerrymander last October. When voters are informed about issues and candidates, and when even a small number of sporadic voters are mobilized to vote, that dif - ference has the power to shift elections. Why do eligible voters not vote? All the reasons you’d expect. They don’t know who’s on the ballot; they haven’t heard of some of the can - didates; in some cases, they don’t even know what some of the rac - es are about. They have mobility problems, or lack transportation. They’ve heard you have to have a driver’s license to vote, and they don’t drive any more. And these days, in our current environment, an increasing number of voters feel it simply doesn’t matter. Why should they participate in a system that seems stacked against them? In our state’s heavily ger - rymandered districts, many voters now don’t have fair representation. Their vote hasn’t mattered before; why should it now? Besides, there are more pressing things to worry about. It costs too much to pay the bills. Healthcare and food assistance are being snatched away. They’re assaulted by a constant stream of misinformation and lies. At a time when it’s hard to know who to trust, going to the polls is, understand - ably, the last thing on many people’s minds. Add to that the fact that some voters are simply too scared to con - sider voting right now. As ICE continues to brutalize immigrant com - munities and attack those bearing witness, voting is no longer a fully free act. The Authoritarian Threat Looming Over This Year’s Elec- tions This year we face even tougher challenges: outright attacks on vot - ing and elections, from the president himself; gerrymandering; voter suppression; investigations and indictments of political opponents; even outright election theft, or simply “canceling” elections. Trump has publicly demanded all of these, and many Republicans in Con- gress and in state legislatures are following through.
Susan Lynne Using the Laws of Attraction Psychic, Medium, Spiritual Consultant
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36—PATHWAYS—Spring 26
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