Coalition Press Release on Voting Acces for African Americans
May 11, 2020
AN OPEN LETTER and URGENT REQUEST TO THE MEDIA
We’re writing to you as a coalition of African American organizations who have come together to address concerns about the threat to ballot access posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. We have grave concerns that if certain concrete steps are not taken immediately, thousands of voters will be disenfranchised on June 2, 2020 due to lack of sufficient information and education, and due to the very serious reduction in the number of polling places (from approximately 900 to approximately 150). There is to be only ONE polling place per council district in Pittsburgh, and possibly only ONE polling place in the outlying municipalities. This is a potential formula for a disaster! We are calling upon area media to make certain that this message gets out, and that there is an emphasis on the need to VOTE BY MAIL! Most people who go to their regular polling place June 2nd will find it CLOSED!
Abraham Lincoln once said that “elections belong to the People” and more recently, Barack Obama declared “There is no such thing as a vote that does not matter.” In view of the importance of the results in this upcoming primary, and its impact on the future of our region and the nation, we are calling on you to take immediate steps to help ensure that every Allegheny County citizen, who wishes to vote, will be able to do so safely.
We are calling upon members of the media to begin immediately to create and initiate, as quickly as possible, an aggressive public education campaign to inform County residents of the following:
1) The extreme lack of polling places that will be open to voters on June 2, 2020
Primary Election Day. The need to emphasize that their usual polling place will quite likely NOT be open.
2) The option to vote by mail that is available to them. (With the impact of
COVID-19, the age of many Allegheny County voters, along with the serious reduction in the number of polling places, we feel strongly that THE MAIL IN BALLOT must be strongly promoted.)
3) The proper procedures and timelines for receiving, filling out, and returning
their application.
4) The proper procedures and timelines for receiving, casting, and returning their
ballot.
5) Please feel free to review our one page flyer which lists specific information.
You can also feel free to promote VOTESPA.COM.
Though we agree with and promote the use of social media, we believe that an aggressive public outreach effort that relies primarily on social media will exclude many voters who either do not engage with social media, or who lack access to it altogether. Therefore, we are requesting that local television, radio and printed news outlets strongly dedicate not only normal Public Service Announcements to this effort, but to also donate significant airtime, or space in printed media, to inform our citizens of the actions they must take to successfully vote in the June 2, 2020 Primary.
We thank you in advance for you work to help ensure ballot access for all interested citizens. We stand ready to do our share of the work to make that a reality, but area media have a most powerful platform from which to educate and motivate the voting public!
Sincerely,
Tim Stevens, Chairman & CEO, Black Political Empowerment Project (B-PEP), cav.pgh@gmail.com/ 412-758-7898
Rick Adams, Co-convener, W. PA. Black Political Assembly, theradioactivist@prodigy.net/ 412-580- 8084
Richard A. Stewart, Jr., President, NAACP Pittsburgh Branch, dcstew66usmc@yahoo.com/ 412-389- 7799
Maryn Formley, Executive Chair & Founder, Voter Empowerment, Education & Enrichment Movement (VEEEM), veeempittsburgh@gmail.com
Luther J. Sewell, Jr., Convener, Talk Minority Action Group (TMAG) contact@talkminorityactiongroup.org, 412-823- 4007
Tracy Baton, Coordinator, Pittsburgh Women’s March, tracy.tcb@gmail.com/ 412-389-3269