‘We’re not telling people how to vote. We just want to educate people around what happened’

On a Saturday morning in April, dozens of participants gathered around small round tables on the second floor of the Mt. Zion Progressive Missionary Baptist Church Annex in South St. Petersburg to see and hear what was billed as an important presentation.

Common Cause Florida was there to watch, the ACLU of Florida was there, the St. Petersburg Chapter of the League of Women Voters was there and Antonio Gilliam, the assistant police chief in St. Petersburg, was there.  Overall, the focus was on Equal Ground, a statewide nonpartisan organization working to increase civic engagement among the Black electorate in Florida as the November election looms in 2024.

It was the first date of the group’s statewide voter education tour, in conjunction with the St. Petersburg chapter of the NAACP. The other events will take place in the coming weeks and across the state.

“We are in an age of conservatism,” said Trenia Cox of the St. Pete NAACP.  “We are at a point where there is an ‘anti-woke agenda’ and never have we needed the advocacy and the engagement so that victories that have been won remain in place, and we can create some new ones.”

Blacks represent nearly 13% of Florida voting electorate, according to the latest records from the Florida Division of Elections, with 1,721,238 voters. Of those voters, 74% are Democrats, 23% are Republicans, and the remaining 3% are either non-party-affiliated or registered with third parties.

Equal Ground was formed in 2019 in response to the GOP-controlled Florida Legislature’s law implementing the constitutional amendment passed in 2018. It was designed to restore the voting rights of most Floridians who had completed their criminal sentences. But in June of 2019, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation that prohibited those ‘returning citizens’ from voting unless they paid off certain legal financial obligations imposed by a court pursuant to a felony conviction.

“So it was around that time that we said we need a centralized organization committed to the issues that matter to Black people,” Genesis Robinson, the interim executive director of the organization, told the audience. “We do voter education and preparedness, leadership training, strategic planning and then sometimes, when necessary, we engage in litigation to challenge some of these laws.”

The group offers specific methods for individuals to get involved politically, such as retaining a lobbyist or partnering with an organization to expand awareness and knowledge of legislation that will impact their community, and using traditional and new media, such as penning an op-ed with their local newspaper or requesting a meeting with the local editorial board to discuss an issue.

Sounding the alarm

Equal Ground’s focus on raising awareness to voters is a top issue. Those people who have been voting by mail in recent elections must request a new ballot from their local supervisor of election heading into this year’s primary and general elections.

“We’re sounding the alarm for everybody that, ‘Hey, if that’s a preferred method that you want to vote by mail, you need to know that you need to re-request your ballot,” Robinson told the Phoenix.

Robinson added that though the number of voters who have signed back up to get a vote-by-mail ballot continues to increase, “we’re nowhere where we should be in my opinion, because we’re six months away from the election,” he says. “I think that we should at least have 80% to 90% of what that number was, and we’re nowhere near that.”

With voting rights a major concern, it’s not a surprise that Equal Ground feels the most important proposal of the just-concluded legislative session was a comprehensive voting rights measure sponsored by Orange County-area Democrats Geraldine Thompson in the Senate and LaVon Bracy Davis in the House (SB 1522/HB 1035).

The proposal aimed to repeal key portions of major election bills passed in the previous years by the Legislature and called same-day voter registration; would make vote-by-mail ballot requests permanent; called for a centralized database to be created by the state to allow voters with felony convictions to check if they owed fines or fees; and would have made Election Day a holiday, among its many provisions.

Those bills never received a committee hearing.

Contentious legislation

Robinson’s “legislative debrief” of what took place this winter in Tallahassee was the central feature of Saturday’s event.

For example, a bill, SB 184, now signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, makes the measure a second-degree misdemeanor for anyone who, after receiving a warning “to approach or remain within 25 feet” of a first responder such as a law enforcement officer when they are engaged in the lawful performance of a legal duty.

“To throw someone in jail for up to potentially 60 days for coming too close to a first responder is a step too far for us,” said Robinson, referring to the cellphone video recordings of the death of Eric Garner in New York City and George Floyd in Minneapolis.

“Thank goodness there was someone within 25 feet who could record, and who could accurately portray what it is that took place in those encounters,” he said. “What is it that you are trying to hide?” Robinson asked.

Another contentious bill (HB 601) passed this session and signed by DeSantis reforms the 23 civilian police review boards that currently exist — but does not eliminate them.

The law ensures that a chief of police or county sheriff will head such review boards of between three to seven members, all of whom are selected by the police chief or sheriff.

That led Antonio Gillum from the St. Petersburg Police Department to vow that his city won’t do much to change what they currently do. St. Pete’s civilian review board was created in 1996.

“I’m pleased to announce that Chief Anthony Holloway has told us, he’s told you and soon he’ll announce, we in St. Pete will continue to do the work we’ve been doing for 28 years. We’ll continue to have a civilian review committee in St Petersburg,” he said to cheers.

Robinson, of Equal Ground, says he rejects the notion that simply telling what a particular party may have done is partisan engagement.

“Just to say that ‘Republicans passed this bill. Republicans did not pass this bill. Republicans ignored some of the issues that improve people’s quality of life.’ That’s not partisan in my opinion,” he says. “Partisan should be that ‘you should vote a different way because of that.’ We’re not telling people how to vote. We just want to educate people around what happened, who’s responsible for it happening and then allowing them to connect the dots to making the best decision that’s best for them.”

Here’s a list of upcoming Equal Ground events: Orange County (Sanford) – Monday, April 29, 2024; Hillsborough County (Tampa) – Thursday, May 9, 2024; Lee County – (Fort Myers) – Saturday, May 25, 2024. (Several other events will be “TBA.”)