Toledo’s GOTV Party

On Sunday November 6, we volunteered at a Clinton campaign table outside the Early Voting Center at The Source in Toledo, Ohio.

30195885063_89d4f851fe_k

This location is the only place to vote in all of Toledo – a city with a population of over 280,000 people. While some people went home because they didn’t want to wait in line, the overall turnout remained quite large and the line wrapped around the building.

30734519752_376d2ca2c6_k

On November 1, the New York Times wrote of low African American early voting participation in cities across Ohio, including Toledo, reporting that:

“In Ohio, which also cut back its early voting, voter participation in the heavily Democratic areas near Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo has been down, though the Clinton campaign said it was encouraged by a busy day on Sunday when African-American churches led voter drives across the state.”

The African-American turnout this Sunday was particularly strong, as was the presence of a variety of constituencies, including the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA), pastors of African-American churches, college students returning home, and families with small children. We were encouraged by their frequent visits to the Clinton tent.

30743046901_c98fe75381_k

30793934146_152ebd615d_k-2

30714287272_4a57f5abe5_k

A DJ blared music from a parking lot on Monroe Street. People ate chicken wings, sausages, and tacos from nearby food trucks.

30713644532_79cef4555d_k

Volunteers danced in the median of the road with Clinton-Kaine signs, offered pan dulce (Mexican sweetbreads) from a local bakery to passersby, and prepared information on the Democratic ballot for voters.

The party atmosphere of the entire day added some much needed levity to the election.

30794123836_654fb0bd21_k

30830872845_797598a564_k-1

30714057922_f24590da16_k

The polling station closed at 5pm, but people in line continued to wait; by law they must be allowed to vote if they are in line when the polls close.

Volunteers continued to offer support from a distance, even as the setting sun drew their long shadows over the rough pavement of Monroe Street.

30742582801_53425ce2d9_k

In that moment of transition from afternoon to evening, I got the sense that we were all thinking and feeling the same thing: just a few more days to go. 

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s