Karilynn Myers, 64, made her voting plan a long time ago. As a postal worker on the overnight shift, she will get off work at 5 a.m. and plans to be at the polls by 6 a.m.
“And I’ll stand in line as long as necessary,” she says.
She says she always votes because her grandmother couldn’t and her mother wasn’t always able to.
Myers lives in the Harvard Court apartments, near where Interstate 70 and U.S. Highway 40 intersect in Kansas City, Missouri.
The complex makes up Ward 15, Precinct 21, which had the lowest voter turnout of all wards in 2016 covered by the Kansas City Election Board. Of 200 registered voters, 39.5% voted.
But election officials are projecting this year will be different.
Shawn Kieffer with the Kansas City Election Board says officials have already taken in 33,000 in-person absentee ballots. That’s four times what they recorded in 2016.
“We’re projecting record turnout, similar to 2008 numbers, (President Barack) Obama’s first election,” Kieffer said.
In 2008, 66% of the voters in the urban core turned out, compared with 58% in 2016.
Nationwide, The Pew Research Center finds that two-thirds of Black registered voters say they are extremely motivated this year, compared with 60% who voted in 2016.
Myers will vote for Joe Biden “as the lesser of two evils,” she says. “Mrs. (Kamala) Harris as his V.P. is very helpful.” Anything to get Donald Trump out of office seems to be a prevailing sentiment.
“I did not like him (in 2016) but not as much as I dislike him now,” she said. “It’s like he’s trying to run the country like one of his businesses … and the change they’re making is not conducive to the common man.”
Things are rough
Stacey Welch, 50, also a resident of Harvard Court, was getting in his car on the way to work at the Hereford House. A Black man who has seen his community ravaged by COVID-19 and its economic fallout, he also believes enthusiasm for this election is high.
“It’s been kind of rough out here,” he said. “I was lucky. I was an essential worker, I never stopped working through COVID, but most of the employees were laid off.’
Just around the bend in the driveway at Harvard Court, Debra Harris, 69, was brushing the snow off of her car.
“We need to get Donald Trump out of office,” she says. “It’s amazing to me how much racism and misogynistic tendencies are at play right now. I’m 69 years old and have not experienced that before.”
She says the divisive rhetoric has contributed to the racial tension and violence across the country, particularly among people of color. And it's motivated them to vote.
“I think they’ll carpool, be mailing in their votes, any avenue that’s open to them,” she says with a chuckle.
Panthea Steele, 38 and Casey Hatcher, 46, believe the confluence of the pandemic, the economic decline — both suffered disproportionately by communities of color — as well as the police killing of Black people have energized Black voters nationwide.
Steele, who worked in a retirement community, has been unemployed since the beginning of the pandemic. Without a paycheck, the utility company cut off her heat.
“I’m in debt, my apartment is cold,” she said. “It’s snowing out here.”
After the couple finished their own two-month quarantine, they began delivering food and supplies to neighbors, many elderly.
“(This president) knew about COVID,” Hatcher says. “He didn’t let the American people know in time. Him or Mike Pence.”
Steele and Hatcher are encouraged by election enthusiasm, especially among young people. Steele says her 19-year-old daughter is excited to vote.
“She’s like, ‘Mama, who do I gotta vote for?'" Steele says. “I told her ‘If you don’t know, you vote for who you want as an independent.’”
Fewer than 50% of young people voted in 2016. Hatcher sees that changing this year.
“They’re actually listening to their parents and grandparents this year,” he says. “This pandemic has got everyone upset. We’ve just got to wear our masks, social distance, and vote, to come together like we always do.”
