If you think voting doesnt count, take a moment to look at a political race in Chicago, where a young democratic socialist won the 33rd ward aldermans spot against a wealthy woman whose family had held that position for decades with the help of donations from powerful corporate donors and developers.
Rosanna Rodriguez won by just 13 votes. Every single vote was counted. It took weeks to get the final results.
How did she win this race? People power. People who were fed up with political decisions that hurt those who are vulnerable. People who were willing go door to door. People who were willing to encourage others to register to vote and then remind to vote. It took thousands of hours from people who believed that change not only had to happen but was possible. And it was. And it is.
We live in an area where so much of the population is poor. People in poverty have a hard time voting. They have lost their identification, or they believe that if they have a felony they cant vote, or they dont have a way to get to the polls or someone to watch their children while they vote.
They dont get the newspaper so they dont know its time to make sure that they are registered, that early voting is happening, that its election day, or even that an election is happening.
They are so busy with the stress that comes with poverty, figuring out how their children are going to eat, if they are going to be able to pay the rent, or working two jobs that thinking about voting is the last thing on their minds. Their actual thinking is, I should vote, but my vote doesnt matter anyway.
How do I know? Because at Humanity House, it is one of the questions that we ask 99% of the people who come in our door. Are you registered to vote? If not we answer all of their questions, help them get the required ID if they dont have it, explain the voting laws if they have a prior felony, and then we register them to vote.
Getting them to the polls is a whole other ball game.
Allen County has low voter turnout despite having so much at stake. You may be sitting in your nice house, drinking a cup of coffee, planning out your weekend, writing a grocery list, planning a vacation, and not even thinking about poverty because it doesnt affect you.
Unfortunately, youre wrong. The web of poverty weaves itself into the lives of everyone. Only the ultra-wealthy are seemingly unaffected by it.
For normal folks, poverty hits us when lack of good health care makes the emergency room the place for medical treatment. When we reduce SNAP it affects the economy, because for every SNAP dollar spent, $1.70 goes back into the economy. Lack of a living wage means less money is spent at local stores. Lack of mental health care.
Working two low-paying jobs mean parents are spending a lot on daycare or leaving their children on their own. Utility rate hikes force people to choose between food, medicine, gasoline, rent, or heat, leading to missed work, lost jobs, a decline in school performance, and homelessness.
Missed work not only affects the individual, but also the industries where they work. Training their replacement is time-consuming and expensive.
When people seek their healthcare at the emergency room, thats an additional cost to society.
Adults struggling with drug and alcohol abuse who are in and out of the legal and mental health system are an added cost to society.
