Columbia World Projects on Thursday hosted an online event on how to mobilize voters of color in a time of protest and pandemic. Two experts in the field,  Nsé Ufot, Executive Director of the New Georgia Project, and María Teresa Kumar, President and CEO of Voto Latino took part in the discussion, which was moderated by Olatunde Johnson of Columbia Law School.

“The goal of this panel is really for us to learn about the challenges to voting raised by the pandemic, as well as how these issues are being reshaped by the protests and the heightened attention on police violence and racism that we’re seeing,” Johnson said in opening remarks. “We want to better understand how groups are responding to these challenges on the ground.”

The wide-ranging conversation touched on questions about voter suppression; the composition of the electorate; the role of new technologies in elections; and strategies for bolstering the party system. Ufot and Kumar discussed this month’s primary elections in Georgia, in which a fleet of new voting machines purchased for Georgia’s elections malfunctioned, leading to hours-long lines for voters across the state. They outlined their organization’s goals for increasing turnout in the face of roadblocks such as elected officials who actively oppose the expansion of the electorate. And they discussed how their organizations have shifted strategies during the pandemic by encouraging early absentee ballot registration, and voter registration and participation among protesters. 

“123 million Americans sat it out in the last election because they thought their vote didn’t matter. If we flood the zone with new voters and infrequent voters, where we have the receipts of our participation, it is going to be very, very hard to steal this thing,” Kumar said, referring to the November general election.

Ufot emphasized the importance of voters getting involved with organizations like hers that have longer time horizons than individual political campaigns. “Everyone needs a political home, period. Know what your issues are. What are the things you can’t stand to see continue or what are your highest hopes for yourself and your community? Find those people and join that organization,” she said.

“People say ‘the polls say this,’” Kumar noted. “Don’t listen to the polls. We need you to show up.”
 
Full video of the event is available here: