This upcoming Midterm Elections are an important election in determining which direction the U.S. government will move towards. In just the state of Minnesota, over 130 seats are up for re-election. Each seat and each representative can flip to any party, changing the direction of the country.
In a conversation about the Midterm Elections with Filipinx for Immigrant Rights and Racial Justice Minnesota (FIRM) and St. Columba Church, not only was the importance of voting spoken about, but also the issue of political apathy.
Much of organizing work involves having very direct conversations with community members about voting and elections and, often times, community members would simply shrug their shoulders and say the dreaded words:
“It doesn’t matter if I vote.” Or: “Voting doesn’t matter.”
“It takes patience,” Nam, the president of St. Columba Church’s Vietnamese Youth Heritage Movement, says. “You have to keep making noise to create change.”
Nam emphasized that change happens slowly and that voting does provide a chance to create that change.
“It matters that you get out there and see the candidates and talk to them,” he says. “It’s about your voice and making them pay attention.”
Of course, Nam also stated that this change happens slowly for the community member as well, saying that we “cannot change [their minds] in one conversation, that there needs to be a lot of work to make people understand.”
This phrase “it doesn’t matter if I vote” or other similar rebuttals is often used to shut down the conversation a community organizer may try to start.
“I understand why they say that,” FIRM Co-Founder Greg says, “especially if people come from a place where voting doesn’t matter or [voting] isn’t part of the cultural fabric.”
It’s especially disappointing to hear this from young voters, he says. But there is no one way to navigate this conversation.
“I try to approach [this situation] from the viewpoint of a person with an immigrant family and talking about what’s at risk for immigrant families,” he says. “And why it’s doubly important for those of us who have immigrant families who can’t vote — to vote.”
Greg hopes the community members he speaks with are able to connect the dots and see the importance of voting because they can provide a voice to their communities.
“It’s also reflective of how immigrant communities, young people, and communities of color, who haven’t been heard at all historically,” FIRM Co-Founder Maryam adds. “People feel like they’ve done what they could, that they’ve done their best, you know, voted in the past or protested — and yet, nothing’s changed.”
The lack of change is hard to deal with and can be disempowering, Maryam emphasizes. And the disempowerment adds to that cycle of feeling as if voting doesn’t matter.
But “there is no other time like the present to really try and mobilize people,” Maryam says. “I would expect that communities such as ours, the Asian American community, marginalized communities [etc], I would think that this is the time to feel that [pressure] because no community has been untouched by this administration.”
To learn more about how you can vote, click here. If you’re already registered to vote and want to join the movement to make sure others have the same access, click here.