Voting is a major aspect of this country's success and plays a role in our survival. COVID-19 was unexpected, it changed our lives a tremendous amount; it changed our school systems, our work lives and altered the way we live our daily lives and routines. The major change it brought upon us is the election process. Everyone, including the youth, the young adults, we should learn and understand the importance of voting, the process, the goals and the effects. These reports were written by members of the Trellis team, they are written based on their thoughts after attending a zoom call on Voters Outreach.

Within this week's meeting, It has been stated between my colleagues and I that earlier in June, it had seemed that politics played a superior role in the lives of many citizens within the U.S. It was very evident that many republicans within the U.S. had taken actions to make sure people have tremendous difficulty conducting voting in their areas. Many people have had their ideals suppressed as elections come closer, leading to not many people having any motivation to take part in their own community. It's as if they are purposeful. Additionally, the republicans overall, had weaponized a global pandemic in their favor to make sure people go through the hassle of voting and lose their motive within their community.

The spring election had been planned for many voters to take action and vote at around April 7th. People tried organizing for a change in the poll results of 22,000 people voting for Trump within 2016 in Wisconsin. However, in order for this to succeed and make sure Trump does not win the election, the people within inner communities down in Wisconsin, had traveled around to reach out to non voters and influence them. They conveyed how important it was to have extra people to vote and change the tides of however the election is predicted to go. Because of this, there has been a spike in urgency for people influencing others to take the privilege to vote and grow a base for voters that can help create a right decision in an election. Also within the meeting, it was stated that in due time, even the pandemic had played a role in suppressing many people to exercise their own right to vote because Poll workers had opted out of working in voting areas, causing them to close in certain states. Not only that, but the president had even tried to place limits into mail voting(a countermeasure to make it easier for people to vote and be safe from COVID-19). This overall made it nearly impossible for people to even consider voting in their areas across the U.S.

All in all, it had seemed that even now, there are small groups trying to over all expand the process of voting by influencing many non voters who have never planned to go to ballots. This allowed for more communities to overcome the feeling of oppression by other republicans who believe they shouldn't have their voices heard. Activists who urge for others to vote have even gone through the process of adapting and using the snowball effect to get many local student leaders of age to learn the absentee ballots as well as the small process for registering to vote in their area. Hence, In order to prevent further notions of republicans suppressing the thought and easy process of voting from regular citizens, advocates of free for all voting should put more effort into reaching out to communities and urging others to exercise their right to vote and change tides by election time.

—By: Gbenga Akinrosoye

This meeting we talked about the election and tried to help people vote through different means. They also had a lot of zoom calls to get together to discuss and reach out to voters. Some people even went out during COVID when it was at its highest and voted. There was a debate on whether people who have voted during COVID made any impact. Some people believed they were courageous. Some even believed that what they did didn’t matter and had a little effect on the election. Others also said that what they did was dangerous and uncalled for and that they shouldn’t have gone out during the height of COVID because they could have placed others at risk of catching the corona virus. We also talked about the youth interrogation bill for New York State also about The closing of Rikers Island and also prisons coming to Brooklyn. In each borough there is a group, before I didn’t really know this. Bronx connect is a part of that and they watch over the neighborhood. There is a similar group like that for the other four boroughs. Voters would usually stand in line close to each other, handling ballots and using touch screens to make for a community transmission of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Election officials are giving full attention to deal with this. This includes reviewing their state’s continuity of government constitutional provisions. The goal is to address legal questions around running elections while also decreasing the potential for spreading the virus.

—By: Raphael Moreau