The Afiya Center is registering voters to hopefully make a difference in local turnout

DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
Taffet@DallasVoice.com

Reproductive justice is an important issue to people at The Afiya Center in Dallas, and board member and Interim Policy Director Jo Hunter hopes that understanding what’s at stake will drive people to the polls in November.

“Understand what is on the line here in Texas,” Hunter said. “We don’t have reproductive rights.”

Hunter said she is witnessing people having to go out of state for care.

“Having a Black woman wait 24 hours to die rather than have a medical procedure” is unacceptable, she said, adding that people are making the decision not to get pregnant.

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Election Day rules

On Election Day or at an early voting location, if the polls close while you’re in line, stay in line. You have the right to vote, according to The Afiya Center’s I Am A Reproductive Voter website, BlackWomen.Vote/Texas.

If you make a mistake on your ballot and it’s too late to change on your voting machine, ask for a new ballot.

If the machines are down at your polling place, ask for a paper ballot. It will be mechanically counted once the equipment is back up.

If you go to a polling place and your registration isn’t showing up, ask for a provisional ballot. After Election Day, election officials must investigate whether you are qualified to vote and currently registered. If so, your vote will be counted. Remember you may have been dropped from the voter rolls if you moved or if you haven’t voted in more than four years.

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When Texas eliminated choice, Hunter said, it removed the choice of pregnancy.

Jo Hunter

“We’re finding the restrictions are just getting higher and higher,” Hunter said. “We’re bringing awareness to the reproductive oppression going on right now.”

She said that people who vote for candidates supporting the repeal of Roe v. Wade “are literally voting against their rights.”

But voting, she said, is a way to ensure you have a choice. When her team talks to voters, she said she wants to make sure abortion is on their priority list.

Registering voters
When volunteers from The Afiya Center are out registering voters, many people they speak to say they’re registered. But, “Some people, when checking, find they’re not,” Hunter said. “Make sure people understand if they’re registered.”
She also pointed out that many people only vote every four years in presidential elections and are skipping local elections.

“Some might not have voted since Obama,” Hunter said. “Or they’ve moved. It’s a huge assumption that you register once, you register forever.”

In Texas, if individuals miss more than four years of elections, they may be removed from the voter rolls. Also, when a person moves within the state, they must update their voter registration. And people who have died are removed from the rolls.

Election Judge Patti Fink said there’s a process for that, and voter rolls are supposed to be regularly reviewed with names of no longer eligible voters removed.

But this year, Gov. Greg Abbott made a big deal of removing 1 million names from the voter rolls, insinuating Democrats have done something devious to allow ineligible voters to cast ballots. Republicans, however, have held all statewide offices for more than two decades and therefore have been in charge of updating voter roles.

Check whether you are registered and, if your name doesn’t appear, register to vote by the end of day on Monday, Oct. 7. Check Texas registration status at TeamRV-MVP.SOS.Texas.gov/MVP/mvp.do.

Hunter says reproductive justice matters in Texas which is still No. 1 for pregnancy-related mortality rates for Black women and Hispanic women.

“Not only do people not see themselves in the process, they don’t see themselves in the policy,” Hunter said. “We’re trying to motivate those voters. Being a part of democracy will create the policy. Reproductive justice gets them to fight the fight.”