For Immediate Release: Nov. 6, 2018
Contact: Jennifer Farmer, jfarmer@faithinaction.org, 202-306-0136  

By Partnering with Lyft, Hosting Souls to the Polls, Organizing Door-to-Door Canvasses, Hosting Voter Sabbaths and Phone-Banking, Faith in Action Broke Through Barriers in their Voter Engagement Work 

WASHINGTON – Faith in Action, the nation’s largest network of faith-based organizing groups and congregations, today celebrated a monumental midterm electoral victory; passage of Amendment 4 which restores voting eligibility for 1.4 million Floridians with prior convictions. By running one its largest voter engagement programs ever, Faith in Action, and its state-based federation Faith in Florida, along with the organization’s anti-gun violence and mass incarceration program LIVE FREE, helped propel Amendment 4 to victory.

“This election wasn’t politics as usual,” said the Rev. Alvin Herring, executive director, Faith in Action. “We were fighting to ensure space and place for all of God’s children. Each of the ballot measures we supported promoted inclusion and belonging, and no victory is more significant than the one in Florida. After many years of being denied their humanity, returning citizens now have an opportunity to have a seat at the table.”

“We have to change our name from returning citizens to returned citizens. We have our full citizenship, so we are returned citizens…People from all walks of life have powerful stories about what they’ve gone through and where there are today. That’s what it’s all about. What we’ve just witnessed in this state on this amendment will set the tone for this country because every vote that was captured was a vote of love. This is campaign about love, this is a campaign about inclusion. Those numbers represent what happens when we come together along the lines of humanity,” said Desmond Meade, president, Florida Rights Restoration Coalition.

“We feel victorious. I’m excited knowing where we started, operating with nothing and being told this would never be done,” said Pastor Rhonda Walker-Thomas, Let My People Vote Campaign and Faith in Florida Organizer. “This is a continuation of the civil rights movement given that over 1.4 million citizens will have their rights restored. The organizing from the grassroots level by faith leaders, has made the difference in how the election can be won.”

Faith in Action and Faith in Florida supported Amendment 4 by pushing all congregations affiliated with the organization to become 100 percent voting congregations, by organizing several voter sabbath weekends where clergy committed to preaching, teaching and helping parishioners make a plan to vote, and by organizing Souls to the Polls events in English and Spanish-speaking congregations.

“After 5 years of organizing in support of returning citizens, the 2018 midterms got us closer to a vision of society that is inclusive of people of all races, all faiths, all socio-economic backgrounds and all identities,” said the Rev. Michael McBride, director of urban strategies and campaign director for LIVE FREE. “We know that just because the polling places have closed doesn’t mean the fight for justice is over – we’ve just entered a new phase, one that is focused on eliminating all forms of exclusion for communities of color.”

In addition to the work in Florida, Faith in Action federations and local groups launched or supported ballot measures in Ohio (to reclassify certain felonies to misdemeanors), Colorado (to remove slavery from the state constitution and limit interest collected on payday loans), Massachusetts (to raising the minimum wage and ensuring paid family leave- which won prior to election day), Michigan (in reference to redistricting, and to ensure democracy reforms) and Missouri (to increase the minimum wage and ensure democracy reforms). We also pushed back on voter suppression in Georgia (by highlighting and toppling barriers to the ballot such as voter purges and polling closures) and Florida (to ensuring ballots be translated in Spanish to accommodate Puerto Ricans displaced after Hurricane Maria).

“As a faith leader, my ministry has focused on those society has made ‘the least of these,’” said the Rev. Cassandra Gould, executive director, Missouri Faith Voices in Kansas City, Missouri. Today, people of faith were encouraged to vote for amendments, ballot measures and candidates that represented anti-racism policies and economic inclusion for all of God’s children.”

LIVE FREE, Faith in Action’s anti-gun violence and mass incarceration campaign, also partnered with Lyft to ensure people without transportation had a ride to and from their polling place.

Post-election, we are committed to:

• Launching a Census program that ensures communities of color are counted but respects the ways communities of color have been targeted in this country.
• Increasing access to the ballot for students, young people, the elderly, persons with disabilities, returning citizens, communities of color, and poor and working individuals and families.
• Blocking increased funding for detention and deportation of children and families,
• Providing a ministry of witness to families fleeing violence and seeking asylum in the U.S., and
• Blocking the dehumanization of communities through Public Charge.

For more information, contact Jennifer R. Farmer at jfarmer@faithinaction.org or 202-306-0136.

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