‘Let my people vote.’ Democrats rally for turnout on last weekend before election

Music blared and the scent of food wafted under overcast skies in Miami Gardens as the final hours of Saturday’s early voting push ticked down, part of the “Souls to the Polls” effort to increase turnout in the state’s largest majority-Black city and across South Florida.

There was plenty of urgency and excitement at the North Dade Regional Library polling place at around 5 p.m., but there were no long lines of people waiting to get to a voting booth. About an hour later, heavy rains swept through the area, and many of the volunteers had begun to pack up to leave.

Unlike previous elections, this “Souls to the Polls” weekend comes on the heels of a week of record-setting early voting turnout and during an unprecedented pandemic election that has changed voters’ behaviors. Democrats will make their biggest early vote push on Sunday, the final day of early voting before Election Day.

Elysia Richardson, 45, a Miami Gardens resident and content editor, arrived late at the North Dade Regional Library on Saturday — about 6:30 p.m. She came to cast her ballot for Joe Biden out of a sense of civic duty, she said, having drawn inspiration in recent days from documentaries on Black American history

“I owe it to my ancestors and I owe it to myself,” Richardson said.

Richardson said she dropped off her mail-in ballot to make sure it counted. She said she disagreed with the direction the country was heading under Trump and didn’t want another four years of a Trump presidency. She’s ready to see what Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will bring to the table.

Democrats are relying on more voters like Richardson to push up their numbers in the final days of early voting and shore up their now-slipping lead in voter turnout against Republicans. Any hope Democrats have for a “landslide” victory requires a surge of voters, especially Black and Hispanic voters, which Democrats hope multiple Souls to the Polls events over the weekend will help fuel.

Earlier in the day at the Miami Gardens library, Darius Bowleg, a young volunteer for the Biden-Harris campaign, said the voting site had been bustling over the past week, and that turnout had been strong and steady.

But from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., the in-person line for voting inside the library never grew longer than a handful of people.

State Sen. Oscar Braynon, a Black Miami Democrat, was among those greeting voters Saturday. He noted that there appeared to be more activists than people casting ballots.

“I’m never over-confident” in the run-up to an election, he said, adding that he was especially concerned about bad weather stunting turnout.

“Tuesday, I’ll be less hesitant,” he added.

Souls to the Polls events across South Florida included musical performances, appearances by comedians and giveaways in an attempt to energize voters to cast their ballots after church services but before Election Day on Tuesday.

Chef José Andrés joined singer Pharrell Williams at the early-voting site at the Coral Gables library’s early-voting site. They talked to reporters by the food stand set up by Andrés’ World Central Kitchen, where bagged Cuban sandwiches and guava pastelitos were available for anyone who wanted them.

“We need to show up and vote,” Andrés said, who spoke earlier in the day at a rally with Democratic vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris at Florida International University.

“We’ve got to show up in numbers,” added Williams, a Trump critic who demanded the campaign stop using his “Happy” song at rallies.

Florida, a must-win state for the president, has been been the focus of intense campaigning as Election Day nears and polls show a tight race for the state’s 29 Electoral College votes. On Saturday, Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., campaigned in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. On Sunday, President Donald Trump will host a late night campaign rally at the Miami-Opa locka airport. Then on Monday, Miami-Dade will get another visit from former President Barack Obama.

‘The stakes are huge.’ Democrats lean on Souls to the Polls in final push for turnout

Polls opened at 7 a.m. Saturday, and there was already a large turnout of political supporters and voters decked out in foul weather gear at the Davie-Cooper City library at 7:30 a.m. as a line of showers moved through and tested their resolve.

Cooper City Mayor Greg Ross, who is running for re-election, was there with his sign and coffee, greeting arrivals and thanking them for voting.

“The turnout has been very encouraging,” he said.

The line snaked around the building with voters socially distanced under umbrellas and jackets and wearing masks.

Almost all the campaign supporters were complying, too, except for one man circulating through the parking lot. He wore a MAGA hat and was handing out leaflets but not wearing a mask.

When someone said he should have a mask on, he responded with a loud, “So?”

Florida Democrats also held a virtual get-out-the-vote forum for the faith community Saturday. Bishop Adam Jefferson Richardson Jr., senior bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, told viewers that when he submitted his vote earlier this week, he felt he had “done something holy.”

“I believe that the same voice that says ‘let my people go’ says ‘let my people vote’,” he said.

South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn, the Democratic House Majority Whip, talked about how a Trump win could cast a shadow over the struggle for racial justice in the Black community. He said he believes the 2020 election is as consequential as the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln, which kicked off a period of Reconstruction.

“On Tuesday, on the ballot is in fact this country’s foundation. A foundation upon which we have been building in pursuit of a more perfect union. Will we continue that pursuit or step back and relieve much of our history that we thought we would never see again?” he asked.

As the campaign volunteers at North Dade Regional Library packed up for the evening on Saturday, three children dressed in Halloween costumes — two wearing scary masks and and the youngest dressed as a bumblebee — approached the voting site.

They were there with their grandmother, Antoinette Brown, 55, and their mother, Annette Brown-Perez, 32. They had plans to see family for a COVID-safe celebration after voting.

“We’re going trick or treating in our house!” the bumblebee said, behind a blue surgical mask.

First, they they stopped at the library to cast ballots for Biden. Brown-Perez said she has many reasons for supporting Biden, but chief among them is ousting Trump. She said she was especially upset by reports of migrant children separated from their families because of the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies.

“Where are those kids now?” Brown-Perez said. “Where are the kids?”

Her mother, Brown, accused Trump of divisiveness, and placed her hope in a Biden presidency to restore a sense of unity.

“I’m looking for some change,” Brown said. “We need to come together as one.”