“Get out the vote” doesn’t just mean the white vote

Last month, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation honored the president and first lady at its annual gala. As President Barack Obama addressed the gathering, he made a powerful case for the black community to vote en masse this November.

“Everything we stand for is at stake,” Obama said. “Tolerance is on the ballot. Democracy is on the ballot. Justice is on the ballot. Good schools are on the ballot. Ending mass incarceration – that's on the ballot right now!” If communities of color mobilize, he argued, they can swing the election.

The president isn’t being idealistic; he’s describing a simple demographic truth. In Steve Phillips’ book “Brown is the New White,” published earlier this year, the author offers a portrait of the New American Majority. In this America, the party most prepared for the electoral future will be the one that can most successfully court a broad, diverse coalition of black and brown people and align its priorities with theirs. Organizers who aim to court and register white swing voters, Phillips argues, are grasping at straws.

Year after year, I’ve seen this mistake in get-out-the-vote campaigns. These efforts typically target areas that are low-hanging fruit: college campuses and business hubs, where follow-through is reliable, folks are already likely to vote, and most people are white. These efforts exclude the people who need voting resources most: students in low-income areas, ex-felons, new citizens and communities of color at large.

The Black Institute has worked to right that wrong. Over a period of 60 days, we organized, educated and registered New Yorkers who have been sidelined from the political process. Between August and October, in partnership with the New York Immigration Coalition, our staff and volunteers registered 355 new voters in the five boroughs. Instead of waiting for busy and hardworking people of color to navigate an often-convoluted system, we brought the vote to them.

We brought the vote to high schools in low-income areas. At one school, our staff members talked with students and heard their anxieties about life after graduation – finding somewhere to work and a place to live. When we left the school, 30 new student voters were registered and poised to participate in writing their own next chapters.

We brought the vote to rehabilitation centers. Many at these centers had once been incarcerated, and had been misled to believe that they were permanently barred from voting. They told us about the roadblocks that stand between ex-felons and the services they need most, like housing, education and jobs. Our staff clarified that they could, in fact, advocate for themselves at the voting booth, and signed them up.

We brought the vote to a naturalization ceremony for new citizens of the United States. As immigrants pledged to fight for the United States if called upon, we empowered them to hold accountable those who could now send them to war. We registered 65 new voters that day.

When people of color vote in key battleground states, we can change presidential elections. Consider Ohio: When African-Americans made up 10 percent of the Ohio voters in 2004, George W. Bush won the state by just 100,000 votes – and, accordingly, won the election. But in 2012, as the percentage of African-American voters in Ohio jumped to 15 percent, and Barack Obama won the state handily. Ohio is just one example of a broader pattern. Black and brown people can be the driving force behind major electoral victories.

We can swing this election, too. The Black Institute brought the franchise to many who might never have voted otherwise by canvassing the streets that others passed by and entering the neighborhoods other organizers only skirted. If advocacy groups like ours are to be successful, communities of color must unite behind this cause on Nov. 8.

Bertha Lewis is president and founder of The Black Institute and Black Leadership Action Coalition.