ATLANTA – No matter the outcome of the 2020 election, Wednesday is bound to be different from any other post-election day we’ve ever seen. So will the rest of this year, and depending on the outcome, the years to come.
Some are already predicting post-election chaos. Massive protests on both sides. And court battles.
How sad. We are more polarized than at any time since the lead-up to the Civil War, but how sad it would be if any of those predictions were to come true. I voted early. Whether we have four more years of Donald Trump or the first female vice president in American history, I’ve exercised the privilege to choose.
For me, that’s all that matters.
I cannot forget that people bled and died so that I’d have that right.
I think that’s why it’s so hard for me to believe that, according to a Knight Foundation survey released early this year, so many of us Americans don’t even bother.
“The 100 Million Project,” the largest survey of chronic nonvoters in history, found that nearly 100 million eligible Americans in 2016 did not cast a vote for president, representing 43 percent of the eligible voting-age population.
Michael Adams, 54, of Stockbridge, Georgia, was among those who didn’t vote for president that year. So was, I learned recently, NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal, who said he voted this year for the first time in his life.
Adams, a self-described lifelong Democrat and descendant of American chattel slavery, made the hard decision to again vote down ballot only.
“Voting is an exchange, not a gift,” Adams said, explaining his decision. “And although I enjoyed a 22-year military career and (am) presently employed during COVID-19, that can’t be said for the majority of people who look like me.”
He said he could support neither Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden nor President Donald Trump because they have done little to address issues important to the Black community.
“Black Americans have been pushed to the edge of an economic cliff without reparations and specific policies directed at our people and communities,” Adams said.
But that’s exactly why Black people, in particular, can’t afford not to vote – even partially.
To his credit, Adams continues to vote, albeit only in local and state elections. That’s a good thing.
There’s no doubt in my mind local and state elections are just as important to the well-being of our communities as national ones. Maybe even more so.
Whether we’re electing state senators and House representatives or governors, attorneys general, or secretaries of state, local and state elected officials play a critical role in determining how equitable life at home will be.
I mentioned the Knight Foundation’s “The 100 Million Project.” There was a lot about the study I found striking. Here are just a couple of things:
The first is nonvoters are an eclectic bunch with distinctive blocs supporting Democrats and Republicans but don’t show up to cast their ballots. They feel alienated from a political system they find corrupt and irrelevant.
And second, these blocs are so large that when a campaign manages to motivate even a portion of one, it can swing an election. Think of Trump busting through the “blue wall” in the Great Lakes region in 2016 and Barack Obama flipping Indiana, Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia in 2008.
It doesn’t take a genius to realize that how these blocs did or didn’t vote on Nov. 3 could also decide the 2020 presidential election.
Those down-ballot voters like Adams will have also played a big role.
I just hope it isn’t to anyone’s detriment. Whatever happens, I hope all of us will see voting as a sacred duty that should never be neglected. Voting isn’t just about politics. It’s about the future of our democracy.
With prayer and supplication, it could change the trajectory of history and lift all of us.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution