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Poll inspector Clementene Mosley says that w/ ~500 votes cast by noon, turnout is higher than usual at the Alabama National Guard armory here in Marion, AL, a town of 4k people known for its black residents’ key role in the civil rights movement & the struggle for voting rights.
“It’s been great. Steady turnout - people are in and out in less than 10 minutes,” Mosley said. “Since we opened at 6:30 it’s been a steady flow. In regular elections it’s more like a group of people in the morning, then a comedown period, but today it’s a steady flow.”
After casting his vote, Alfonso Moore, a 24-year-old Marion resident, declined to say he voted for but said: “I vote for my own good and try to make a change and make the world get better than it is right now with coronavirus and everything and the economy.”
Black Votes Matter volunteers spoke with voters outside the polling station in Marion, ensuring they have ID and explaining how to read and fill out the ballot.
Billie Jean Young, a 73-yr-old Marion professor, said she volunteered at the polls for Black Votes Matter in order to ensure people’s voices are heard and that the democratic process operates as it should.
“All the talk about people are going to be around w/ guns to protect the election and making up all kinds of new rules ... creates an atmosphere of something’s wrong & people say, ‘I’m going to go out and see if I can do something about that by voting,” Young said. – bei Marion, AL
“Sometimes opposition makes us that much stronger,” Young added. “And we have to be.”
Some Marion, AL, history: The spark that led to the march on Selma & ultimately the Voting Rights Act of 1965 began here w/ the killing of black voting rights activist Jimmie Lee Jackson by a white policeman after cops violently beat black participants in a peaceful demonstration – bei Perry County Courthouse
Today, despite Perry County (home of Marion)’s role in the civil rights movement, it’s still one of the poorest places in the US. As of 2018, it had the country’s 5th-lowest median family income at $26,814 & >35% of people were in poverty, a # that’s surely risen in the pandemic.
But people in Marion remain committed to voting rights. Tiffany Wright, a 41-yr-old Black Votes Matter volunteer, said: “It’s very important that we vote. To make a change in the world we’ve got to vote. I’ll be out here ‘til 7:00. I don’t ever leave ‘til the doors close.”
