As the rhetoric of the Republican Party becomes increasingly divisive, they are looking to their faith to help them decide where they fall on the political spectrum.  

“I grew up under the guise of thinking that the Republican Party was just right about everything because it took the “Christian stance,” said Naomi Jackson. “But the key question for me has become: what is God doing?”

Jackson attends Vox Veniae, a non-denominational and notably progressive church in Austin, Texas. Like any other church, the ambience of the service was set by dimmed lights, bowed heads, and soulful, heartfelt music, but when it was over, Jackson discussed the way the atmosphere of southern religion is changing with her friend, Gina Bastone. The change is particularly focused around influential religious figures like Jen Hatmaker and Beth Moore.

“These white, suburban, middle-class women, evangelicals, are suddenly realizing ‘Trump does not represent me, he does not represent my values,’” said Bastone. “I think that’s a really interesting, shifting demographic that is not what you see in the mainstream media.”

Jason Igkpatt speaks with another member of the congregation during the service at Vox Veniae. Photo by Samantha Springer.

Jason Ikpatt is also a member of the congregation at Vox. For him, the current state of politics in America has made his position abundantly clear and completely absolute. Because he doesn’t want “companies releasing toxins into the air” or for “children detained at the border to have to represent themselves,” he said there is “not much room for nuance to reflect my actual opinion.”

“For me, because things have become so binary in the political sphere, there is really only one option,” said Ikpatt.

Not all southern Christians have always had a liberal inclination, and some still struggle with issues that conflict with their beliefs. Roxanne Van Brown grew up Baptist and attended a Baptist church for almost her entire adult life. She considers herself a radical prayer warrior and has been a staunch Republican for many years, but a paralyzing fear for the future has swayed her political affiliation.

“He is a bully [Trump].” said Van Brown. “He is putting our lives, our national security, in danger, and I can’t support that.”

Van Brown is a member of a Facebook group named “Christians for Beto.” Though she vehemently opposes abortion, gay marriage, and the legalization of marijuana, she will no longer vote Republican.

“For me, the breaking point was when that shooting [Parkland] happened down in Florida.” said Van Brown. “I’m going to vote the way those kids tell me to vote.”

Jillian Myles works for a Texas state Senator. She also finds herself torn when it comes to the issues she cares about, specifically abortion and immigration.

“I have some non-citizen friends,” said Myles. “I care about their well-being, and their status, and their path to citizenship. But on the line of abortion, I have always cared about the unborn, because scripture says God knits us together in our mother’s womb.”

She had not decided who she was voting for yet, but her obligation to her faith plays a bigger role in the way she votes than her occupation does.

“Honestly,” said Myles, “I have just been praying a lot, and trying to look at the big picture… what candidates care about, what they are pushing and hoping for, in line with what scripture says.”

Like Jackson, she is looking to where she sees God and to what will advance his kingdom.

“And that is hard,” she said. “Because I think that both sides of the aisle have good ideas for doing that, so it’s hard to say that one party is going to accomplish it.”

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Austin is a hub for organizers who working to get out the progressive Latino vote across the state. Thirty-one percent of the eligible voters in the state are Latino, and by 2030, that number is expected to hit nearly 40 percent. But voting eligibility and voter turnout aren’t often the same thing. Women like Cristina Tzintzun know this. She is the founder of JOLT Texas, a progressive Latino voter organization that worked to register of thousands of Latinos to vote since November 2016.

Now, she and her hundreds of volunteers have to get them to the polls.

“We are one of the largest and fastest-growing voting blocs in the state, but we’re also largely ignored by both major political parties,” Tzintzun said. “One of the reasons we are under assault and under attack is because we’re actually really powerful and here in the state of Texas, we will soon be the majority.”

The Houston Chronicle reported that in Harris County, Texas, Democrats increased voter turnout with Latinos by nearly 300 percent, compared to a 50 percent increase by the GOP. Democrats have an approval rating of 49 percent, compared to 32 percent for the GOP from Latinos in Texas and other key battleground states, according to a poll released by NBC on November 5.

“People feel like they’re a minority even when they’re in a state where people of color are the majority,”  Tzintzun added.

“¡Vote!” crocheted into a fence along a major highway in Austin, Texas, ahead of the 2018 midterms. October, 26,2018. Photo by Opheli Garcia Lawler.

Some Latina women are those new voters that Tzintzun is talking about. Marciela Salazar is a social worker that lives outside of Austin. Her father is from Mexico, and her mother’s parents brought her mother across the border when she was young. This will be the first election Salazar votes in. Her parents never told her she was supposed to vote, and she never felt truly engaged by politicians. For a long time, she felt like she didn’t know enough to make an informed decision. She broke down in tears when recalling the moment she realized that her reason for not going to vote wasn’t stopping other people she knew, who voted for Republicans.

“I think this is just coming from regret,” Salazar said, sucking in her breath. “From not voting, from not being aware, from not understanding. I see those people that are affected by it –– my family, me. And I do have a desire now to know, and to be informed.”

Salazar’s friend Ana Zepeda is also a social worker. She is the daughter of Puerto Ricans, and since Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, she’s felt a constant anxiety – one that has pushed her to be more vocal about politics with her family and friends.  

“It feels so bad, but I was seriously so heartbroken in 2016,” said Zepeda. “I’ve had a lot of anxiety leading up to November 6. I almost haven’t allowed myself to think of past election day. I have just thought about bugging everyone I know to go vote. Which I’m really good at. I’m really good at pestering people.”

JOLT volunteers canvassing in Austin to encourage Latinos to get to the polls and vote early in the 2018 midterm elections. Photo by Opheli Garcia Lawler.

An underlying theme among Latina women in Texas is how they are often the organizers in their communities. They consistently turn out to vote more than their male counterparts, according to a study completed by JOLT, with the exception of the 69+ age group. In Austin, they are on the ground organizing and canvassing, and working with civil engagement groups to reach people who’ve never been spoken to before.

Maria Medina Miller, who is the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the League of Women Voters – Austin Area, feels the weight of her work.  She explained that there’s a constant exhaustion of feeling under attack by an administration that has been vocal about their disdain of women, of Mexicans, of organizers, and she is all three. But that she doesn’t have the luxury of stopping.

“It’s heartbreaking, but at the same time, we know who we are, we know who are as a culture,” said Medina Miller. “It’s exhausting to go through the same hurdles over and over and over again. But the only thing that does is make me better at what I do. We have a stewardship that we owe to people around us, not just to ourselves.”

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Candidate signs are clumped together by buildings and near parking lots. Stickers for candidates are plastered on phone booths and newspapers stands in the Memorial Student Union, and flyers for candidates hang on public bulletin boards.

But despite the Election Day buzz, students at this historically black university have already had to jump through hoops to even be allowed to vote in the predominantly white Waller County.

“This might be the biggest election during our lifetime,” said Jayla Allen, a student at Prairie View and the elected precinct chair of precinct 309, where Prairie View is located. “Prairie View A&M University and the county of Waller have always had tension, we’ve always had problems with voting rights.”  

Allen is one of five students involved in a federal lawsuit against Waller County, where Prairie View is located. The lawsuit, which was filed on the students’ behalf by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, alleged voter suppression due to the lack of early voting opportunities for students on campus.

“When you look at turnout rates, students voting at Prairie View have one of the highest turnout rates,” said John Cusick, a legal fellow with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. “Just looking at the sheer number [of voters] alone, there’s no justification for the unequal distribution of early voting days.”

During the first week of early voting, there was no polling site available in the city of Prairie View or on PVAMU’s campus. In the second week, the city was granted five days of early voting, but two of those days were off-campus and inaccessible to most students, who lack transportation. These polling sites also offer less hours than polling sites in Waller, with no extended hours.

“Currently, students get no days in week one, and only three in week two, where’s Brookshire, Hempstead, and Waller, none of which has a population as large as the student body, get polling stations for the entire 11-day early voting period,” said Lisa Seger, Democratic candidate for Texas House District 3. Her opponent, three-term incumbent  Cecil Bell, did not respond to requests for comment. “Any barriers to voting are disenfranchising, even when the vote is not literally being taken away.”

Lisa Seger is the Democratic candidate for Texas House District 3. Photo courtesy of Lisa Seger campaign.

The lack of early voting access was not the only problems that students faced this year. PVAMU does not provide individual student mailing addresses. Students were given two addresses to list on their voter registrations. But one address was in a different precinct, meaning that student voters going to what they believed was their assigned polling place would be turned away. Other students found that their registrations were incorrect.

Tayelor Stevenson-Murphy, a senior education major, was one student whose registration was affected. She had registered in Waller County and kept the receipt from her registration. During the early voting period, she was driven to the off-campus polling station by volunteer Charlene Shafer, who lives in Houston.

Upon arriving at the polling place, Stevenson-Murphy was almost kept from voting, because her registration was still listed as being in a different county. She was offered the opportunity to vote on a provisional or limited ballot, both of which presented drawbacks.

“Provisional ballots, they usually end up in the trash. They don’t count, because you have to have so many days to prove why you should be allowed to vote,” said Shafer.

According to NPR, many provisional ballots do not count in the end, due to the problems that can arise.

Shafer said that she had never heard of a limited ballot before, and was told that it would mean that Stevenson-Murphy would be able to vote for state and national offices, but not the local offices, since the rolls said she was still registered in Harris County.

“I live here,” said Stevenson-Murphy. “This is my home away from home. Most of the time I’m here, I go to school here, I don’t really go home too often. So what’s going to affect my day-to-day life is what happens locally.”  

Shafer eventually reached out to Jacob Aronowitz, a field director for the campaign of Mike Siegel, candidate for Representative for the 10th Congressional District of Texas. Aronowitz passed on information to the two of them, saying that since Stevenson-Murphy had her receipt, they had to let her vote.

“When [Charlene] said that, because I have my receipt, they have to let me vote a regular ballot, the woman working asked ‘Who told you that?’” said Murphy-Stevenson. “It made me believe that she knew that all along, and just didn’t want me to vote regularly.”

Election officials from Waller County could not be reached to comment on the situation, or on voting in general. The office did make a statement to the Texas Tribune, saying that the county will be “vigorously opposing allegations of voter disenfranchisement” and that the lack of early voting sites was due to the county’s limited resources.

Stevenson-Murphy was able to vote regularly, though she expressed concern for other students who had also registered in the county, but had not kept their receipts and might face issues during the remainder of the voting period.

“If my registration was messed up, I wonder how many other people’s registrations are messed up,” she said. “A lot of people registered the day that I registered, so I feel like a lot of people’s registration statuses could have been affected.”

Signs promoting local candidates at Prairie View A&M University in Texas. Photo by Kerry Breen.

Candidates in the election are also concerned about the voting abilities of students at PVAMU.

“It is 2018,” said Lupe Valdez, Democratic candidate for governor. “When an HBCU is treated as a clear target for voter suppression, we must call it for what it is. Prairie View A&M is the largest institute of higher learning in Waller County, and the historic and repeated attempts to disenfranchise the voting rights of its student body remain an ongoing injustice.”

Valdez’s opponent, current governor Greg Abbott, did not respond to requests for comment.

Students at PVAMU expressed disappointment that voting in the county always seems to come with problems.

“It’s always something, when it comes down to elections,” said Asia Joubert, a junior nursing major at PVAMU. “There is always an issue; there’s always a struggle.”

A HISTORY OF COMPLICATIONS

This is not the first year that Prairie View students have had difficulty voting in elections. The history of voting complications goes as far back as 1972, when students were told that they could not vote in the presidential election because they were not legal residents of Waller County. Efforts to keep students from voting included propertyownership requirements and residency questionnaires.

Local elected officials and students worked to bring a lawsuit against Waller County, which was resolved in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1979.

“That set a precedent, where any college student could declare their place of residence,” said Frank Jackson, the Assistant Vice Chancellor for State Relations in the Texas A&M University system, which PVAMU is a part of, and the former mayor of Prairie View. “It granted that right to all students. That’s where it started.”

Having worked at PVAMU for 36 years now, Jackson has seen multiple other issues arise at the University during almost every election during his tenure.

In 1992, 19 residents of Waller County, including 15 PVAMU students, were indicted for voter fraud. However, it was found that the campus had been gerrymandered so severely that when students moved across the street, they were placed in a different voting district and causing confusion. It took intervention from the United States Department of Justice to get the county to drop the charges.

“It’s easier to manipulate voting on a college campus,” said Jen Ramos, communications director and national commiteewoman for the Young Democrats of America. “Students move around dorms, there’s confusion about addresses and moving. It’s a perfect storm of voter suppression. It’s understandable, but it’s not right by any means.”

In 2004, the students were again challenged by the county’s district attorney, Oliver Kitzman. According to the Houston Chronicle, a Prairie View student announced that he intended to run for County Commissioner’s Court, and the D.A. declared that he would bring charges against any student who did not meet his personal definition of legal voting residence. An injunction was filed, but election officials then reduced the early voting period to a six-hour period on one day during PVAMU’s spring break. An emergency lawsuit was filed and normal early voting hours were restored.

In 2007, affecting the 2008 election, new requirements, seen as arbitrary and unnecessary, were placed on newly-registering voters, and many registrations, many of which belonged to PVAMU students, were rejected since they did not meet these requirements. Again, the U.S. Department of Justice was forced to intervene.

“They didn’t want the kids voting here in the local elections,” said Jackson. “The students had to protest again, to fight for the rights of students to participate in this election process.”

In 2013, the president of the student government association requested an on-campus ballot box, a request that was granted. However, prior to the 2016 election, there was again a problem with the lack of on-campus early voting polling stations. This controversy, which emerged just five months after the death of PVAMU graduate Sandra Bland, was again seen as an attempt to disenfranchise students on campus.

Sandra Bland , 28, a Prairie View A&M University  alumni, was found dead in a jail cell in Waller County three days after being arrested during a traffic stop. Her controversial  death was ruled a suicide. Photo courtesy of Common Dreams.

“It’s amazing that it’s 2018, and we’re still dealing with the same things that we were dealing with in 1979,” said Shafer. “It’s really sad.”

 Several people believe that the history of voting problems stems from the campus’s demographics. The campus currently has about 7,000 students, and is a predominantly black student body. The entire population of Waller County, as of 2010, is 43,205, and is predominantly white.

“Even though we’ve made progress, as a nation and as a state, we’re still dealing with vestiges of the past,” said Jackson. “It’s amazing how African American communities still have to deal with this stuff, even as we try to move forward into the new millennium. We just want our students, whether they’re African American, Hispanic, Asian, or white, to have equal rights to everybody else.”

Students of Prairie View A&M University, a historical black college in Texas. Photo courtesy of pvam.edu

MOVING FORWARD

While a solution has been reached for this year’s election, those involved at Prairie View are not optimistic about the future of voting on campus.

“We’ve had this fight every year,” said Shafer. “I don’t know what it takes to actually make the change. I guess every year they’ll fight it and maybe they’ll open the door a little wider. I feel sure they’ll fight this again next time. Every time there’s an election, there’s another road block.”

While there has been an increase in voting engagement among students, experts say that that increase means nothing if students don’t have access to the polls.

“It’s not a secret that we’ve had record-breaking turnout in Texas this election, particularly for young people and students,” said Zenén Jaimes Pérez, communications director of the Texas Civil Rights Project. “If we want more people to turn out to vote, particularly young people, we need to make it easy and accessible for them to do so, and not having an on-campus polling location [for the first week of early voting] doesn’t make sense.”

Stevenson-Murphy said that she thought that if voting were more accessible to students, there would continue to be higher rates of engagement among youth voters.

“To actually get [students] to vote is a struggle,” she said. “If you add on the hiccups that we have, it’s kind of like, ‘Forget about it.’”

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