Can Massive Election Turnout Save Democracy?

Oct 23, 2024

Polls around the nation show Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump in a dead heat in several decision-making swing states ahead of the presidential election on Nov. 5. With enormous amounts of disinformation swirling in the media ecosphere, including from prominent figures like billionaire Elon Musk, little is guaranteed as voters begin mailing in ballots or readying their sample ballots to take into the voting booth.

The outcome of the election may well depend on turnout. A newly formed coalition called Black Power Voters Alliance is ratcheting up its organizing in a critical get-out-the-vote (GOTV) effort, which includes on-the-ground canvassing, door-to-door outreach, targeted phone banking, and text message voter outreach, as well as in-person gatherings.

Alexsis Rodgers, political director of Black Futures Lab and Black to the Future Action Fund, which are part of the Black Power Voters Alliance, spoke with YES! Senior Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on YES! Presents: Rising Up With Sonali about the GOTV efforts.

Sonali Kolhatkar joined YES! in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of YES! Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent Media Institute’s Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice (2023) and Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence (2005). Her forthcoming book is called Talking About Abolition (Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women’s Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master’s in Astronomy from the University of Hawai’i, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on “My Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host” in her 2014 TEDx talk of the same name.