Dayton Gets Real: NAACP working to increase voter turnout among Ohio’s black citizens

DAYTON — The NAACP is expanding its “Black Voices Change Lives” push into Ohio and South Carolina.

The campaign works to get more black people to the polls and the organization is targeting those who do not often exercise their franchise.

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Tom Roberts, Ohio Conference NAACP president, said there should be “no excuse” for African-Americans in Ohio to not vote.

“It’s a constant vigilance towards helping voters understand their right to vote, understanding the issues they are confronted with, and then encourage them and helping them make their way to the voting box,” Roberts said.

“Black Voices Change Lives” recruits high-frequency black voters to encourage low-frequency black voters to the voting booth.

Roberts said it starts with calls and text messages. Then, the organization will help people with early voting. On Election Day, Roberts said, the NAACP will help get people to the polls.

“Using a sports analogy, full court press,” Roberts said.

The Ohio Secretary of State’s Office told News Center 7 it does not track voter turnout by race, neither do county boards of elections. The U.S. Census Bureau does track that information, however.

“Those are reported numbers, which are based on surveys,” said Mark Caleb Smith, director of the Center for Political Studies at Cedarville University.

because the data is self-reported, he said, it is a little inflated.

“It’s probably your best estimate of what people say they did,” Smith said.

The numbers show that for the 2016 presidential election, 65.2 percent of black citizens voted. That was a 6.5 percent drop from 2012, when 71.7 percent voted.

“It could be in part that Barack Obama was on the ticket in 2008 and 2012 and that created some inspirational effect for African-American voters,” Smith said. “Could also be that his campaign just did a better job of reaching out to them, you know notifying them and getting them ready to vote.”

That is exactly what the NAACP is trying to do for the 2020 presidential election. With the “Black Voices Change Lives” campaign, it is trying to increase black voter turnout by at least five percent compared to 2016.

Roberts said the organization is a 501(c)(3) and therefore not legally allowed to be partisan. While it is not campaigning against President Trump, Roberts said the NAACP is promoting a negative message about him.

“The message is that the time has come. There’s a tipping point where African-Americans in Ohio and in America need to exercise that right to vote,” Roberts said.

He expects black voter turnout in November to be higher than ever.

Ohioans have until Oct. 5 to register to vote. They can do so online on the Ohio Secretary of State’s website.

The state says voters should request an absentee ballot by Oct. 27 at the latest.

Cox Media Group