Balloting goes smoothly as millions of Americans go to the polls

Kennedy was surprised by the short lines at the C.T. Martin Natatorium and Recreational Center on Martin Luther King Boulevard in southwest Atlanta. People had begun arriving before daylight and when the polls opened at 7 a.m., there were about 50 people in line. Within the first half hour, the line was gone, and voters were able to walk in and vote quickly.

“I was voting here on Election Day the first time Barack Obama ran, and the line stretched from the door all the way across the parking lot over there,” Kennedy said, pointing to a spot about 100 yards away. “We were in line for about four hours, and that was early when the polls first opened.”

According to media accounts, few problems were reported at polling places across the country as millions of citizens like Kennedy and her granddaughter flocked to the polls.

“I am so heartened by the number of people on all sides who are turning out to vote and making their voices heard,” said Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center. “You know, no matter who you’re supporting, it is extraordinary that after the last decade of attacks on our right to vote following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Shelby decision, people still want to vote. People still want that voice. And I just take great, great comfort in that.”

Huang, who was in Atlanta assisting in the SPLC effort to protect the vote, said the current election cycle has brought her a new sense of how rare the American experiment really is. She was working the phones and observing the efforts of the Voter Protection Center in Midtown Atlanta. The center is a coalition of the SPLC and its partners, working together against voter suppression. One team took calls from voters who had seen or been subject to problems in the voting process. A second team went over the received calls to determine whether immediate legal response was needed to the reports.

Princess Chambers, a driver for the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, brought her first passenger to the polling place on MLK Boulevard around 8 a.m.

“I just enjoy doing what God wants me to do, and that is helping people,” she said, as she assisted an elderly woman in navigating a wheelchair lift.

Destiny President, a student who has lived in Atlanta for the last eight years, said she was voting for the first time today.

“The abortion laws are important,” she said, explaining why she felt it was important to show up and cast her ballot.

History resonates

At Alabama State University, a historically Black university, voters began to trickle in and out of the Dunn-Oliver Acadome Arena at 7 a.m. before heading to work or class. A handful of young women dressed in bright blue and white exited the building, some proudly displaying Greek letters emblazoned on their cardigan sweaters and T-shirts. They were members of Zeta Phi Beta, a historically Black sorority. 

Esaelynn Cameron, 21, a native of Ohio who attends ASU, had voted early but came out to support her Zeta Phi Beta sisters.

“Voting is really important to me because my mom pointed out that I am only the second generation to be born with voting rights,” Cameron said. “My grandparents [from Alabama] didn’t have voting rights. So, when she put that in perspective for me it was like, ‘Wow, I really need to get out and vote.’ And then going to a school like Alabama State University, it’s so historical. With all the people that attended ASU, freedom fighters, people in the Civil Rights Movement, people that fought for the right to vote who I wouldn’t be here without, as a woman and as a Black person.”

In a city rich with civil rights history, the ASU campus in Montgomery stands out as a place where organizers came together in the 1950s and 1960s to help galvanize the movement.

In the video: First-time voters talk about their experience after casting their ballots at the Dunn-Oliver Acadome Arena on the campus of Alabama State University, a historically Black university in Montgomery, Alabama.

This history was not lost on Chicago native Kaylen Hines, a 19-year-old computer science major who was voting for the first time.

“What mostly motivated me to come out today is what our ancestors did to get us the right to vote,” Hines said. “Me, personally, I’m not really into politics. But I feel like it would’ve been a slap in the face to the people who worked so hard for us to get the right to vote.”

Kaitlyn Edmonson, 19, a criminal justice major from Huntsville, Alabama, was also voting for the first time.

“What motivated me to come out and vote today was just seeing how everything’s been going around the world and how we could potentially have the first Black woman as a president,” she said.

At the Cleveland Avenue YMCA parking lot in Montgomery, a steady stream of voters moved in and out of the polling place ballots. Two men carried signs that read in bold print: “It’s About Us” and “Vote today!”

On this day, retired teacher Eolia B. Cooper II, 71, wore pink in honor of the candidate she supported. Born and raised in Montgomery, she recalls the day voting rights marchers arrived at the City of St. Jude, a social service organization on the outskirts of the city, to camp overnight before the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic “How Long, Not Long” speech on the Alabama Capitol steps the next day, on March 25, 1965.

“I participated in and attended St. Jude when the Selma-to-Montgomery March turned right in and stayed on our campus,” Cooper said. “I wouldn’t dare not take the chance to vote.”

Her daughter, Eolia J. Cooper III, 43, also talked about the fight for voting rights and the barriers her Black ancestors faced.

“We had to fight so hard to get to a point that we could come out freely, without encountering violence of pushback to cast our vote and be heard,” she said. “To not come out and do that, when at this time it’s so simple, so easy, the information is there, would just be a travesty to those who had to go through so much and those who didn’t even survive that process. So absolutely had to come out, because it is my right, it’s my duty and it’s a privilege to be able to cast a vote.”

‘Everybody is struggling’

By late morning, grey clouds gave way to blue skies over Eastern Hills Baptist Church in Montgomery’s Forest Hills Community. As children played in the churchyard jungle gym nearby, people dropped in to cast their votes ahead of the rush of lunchtime voters.

Susie Graham, 57, arrived at church at 5:45. She has volunteered as a poll worker the past four years since moving to Montgomery from Birmingham and worked at the table where ballots are handed out. She said she had seen a steady flow of voters throughout the morning.

“I’ve seen a lot more women voters than I’m used to,” Graham said. “But they did split the districts, so I’m seeing a lot of people that I’ve never seen before, but I have seen a lot of women and first-time voters. I actually noticed several people over 65 that had never voted before. I’ve seen a lot of young men, as well.”

Rhiannon Singleton, 34, who works in the aerospace industry, said she came out to vote to make a difference. Her major issue: the economy.

“Really just the economics of the country right now,” Singleton said. “I think everybody is struggling, even people who were probably doing a little better before. I have three kids, and I make money now that I used to dream of making, and even I feel the economics just going into the grocery store. I’m hoping that will change.”

The SPLC’s Huang said the current election cycle has brought her a new sense of how rare the American experiment really is.

“I am struck over and over again at the resilience of our democracy,” Huang said. “For the last eight years, some political leaders have sought to do so much damage to our democracy, challenging all kinds of institutions – the institution of voting, the institution of the judiciary, institutions of oversight, and checks and balances. And inspired people across party lines, have come together and said no.

“You know, we want this democracy,” Huang continued. “We care about democracy. We are going to express our voice, and our vote, today.”

Picture at top: At the C.T. Martin Natatorium and Recreation Center in Atlanta, voters line up early on Election Day to cast their votes. (Credit: David Naugle)