“Excitement is in the air”: Newly created district elections in Alabama for the first time | US elections 2024

On Tuesday, residents of Alabama's newly redrawn Congressional District Two will vote for the first time.

A Supreme Court ruling in June 2023 created the new Black Belt district, stretching from Choctaw County on the state's western border to Russell County in the east, where Black people make up 48.7% of the population. The decision also preserved the only other majority-black district in the state – District Seven. Voters in the Second District have an opportunity to increase their political power, a historic change that has the potential to bring representative government to voters in the Black Belt.

For Letetia Jackson, one of the plaintiffs in the U.S. Supreme Court case Allen v. Milligan that formed the new district, this election is a personal matter, the culmination of a years-long struggle.

“(We wanted to) ensure that Black voters and the African-American population in the state of Alabama have the opportunity to receive the type of representation that our numbers support,” said Jackson, who also convenes the South Alabama Black Women's Roundtable, an organization that that works to engage black voters.

Black people make up about 29% of Alabama's population, making it the fifth blackest state in the country after Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia and Maryland. But black voters within the Black Belt had been pushed into different congressional districts, preventing them from voting as a contiguous district and ultimately stifling their political power.

“We have seven congressional districts,” Jackson said, “we only had one black-majority district and we advocated for at least one additional opportunity to elect another member of Congress to represent our areas.”

After the 2020 census, which saw the number of Black respondents grow, Jackson said there was an opportunity to push for more representative government. After years of lawsuits and appeals that eventually made their way to the Supreme Court, the boundaries were redrawn and the new Congressional District Two was created.

On Election Day, after voting for a presidential candidate, Second District voters vote down to vote for their representative in the United States House of Representatives. They will choose between black Democrat Shomari Figures and white Republican Caroleene Dobson. Despite the population structure, the region has only been represented by white politicians since 1823, the majority of whom have been Republicans since the 1960s. If elected, Figures would be the first Democrat to hold the office since 2008. And for the first time in the state's history, two of Alabama's seven representatives in the House would be Balck.

“People are really, really excited about this position because there is very little representation in this area that actually reflects the needs, the issues and the policies of the people who live there,” she said. “And so they’re excited about the opportunity to have someone who really knows the district and the people.”

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Jackson said even though her precinct changed, no one from the elections office informed her and many other residents about it.

And during the Super Tuesday primary election earlier this year, advocates reported that more than 6,000 voters in the Second District received postcards with incorrect voting information. In the absence of official voter information and mobilization efforts, the South Alabama Black Women's Roundtable and other organizations are working to educate voters.

“We have seen the district voting age population increase by 49%,” said Rodriesha Russaw, executive director of The Ordinary People Society (Tops). “And so these people are learning more and more about how redistricting impacts the electoral process and their daily lives.”

Russaw also said there has been an “increase in harm” since the last election, particularly for Black voters. She said 15% to 20% of calls to an Alabama Election Protection Network call center were from elders who were afraid to vote. She said the feeling of fear was pervasive.

“One thing we found is that voter intimidation in many ways through marketing, through social media, through everyday contact with individuals, with police officers, when it comes to police brutality and violence… (it is) one “It's an intimidation tactic for black people and people of color won't vote,” she said.

Tops and other organizations plan to deploy trusted community leaders as volunteers in all neighborhoods to encourage people to vote and give voters a sense of security as they vote.

They have completed voter training and serve in several counties in the Second District. They will be present at the polls, helping people get out of vans and buses and get to polling stations.

“We have a really good chance of seeing high turnout among young voters and first-time voters this year — more than at any time since the Obama election,” she said. “We're doing everything we can to make sure those trusted leaders are on the front lines and that they see those faces when they go to the polls because we don't want them to be deterred by law enforcement officers.”

Jackson, of the South Alabama Black Women's Roundtable, said she's heard from a lot of people who are excited.

“I'm not going to say it's a slam dunk or that everything will be rosy on Election Day, but I know there's a lot of excitement in the air,” she said. “There are pockets of poor communities in the Black Belt that generally no one pays the slightest attention to, and when you talk to some of these people they are happy to finally find someone to come and talk to them and represent them she.”

Working with other organizations, Tops is working to ensure every precinct in District 2 has transportation to and from polling locations. Transportation could prove crucial in a largely rural county, particularly one where polling locations may have changed without voters being notified.

“(We) make sure that every single county and district also has transportation for people with disabilities or physical disabilities because we believe that equity and inclusion is a big deal,” Russaw said.

Her inclusive voter engagement also extends to childcare. Speaking to voters, Russaw said organizers heard repeatedly that people had to choose between staying home with their children or going to the polls. This year, Tops is working with community volunteers to provide people with a safe place for their children while they go out and vote. The organization's multi-purpose center offers activities for children from morning until after the polls close.

Jackson said several organizations across the state have been working to reach voters by knocking on doors, making phone calls, sending out information and holding rallies and events. They tried to make sure people knew when, how and where to vote.

“Our education and mobilization strategy throughout this process is to let voters know that they need to make a plan to vote, not just show up where they normally show up, but make sure that's where they're supposed to be,” she said.

Tops also uses its radio station WKCD99.1FM to provide up-to-date information about the election, criminal justice and reproductive justice. This station is also used for their “Bring Hope to the Vote” campaign, which aims to inspire people to vote.

“People have lost so much hope,” Russaw said. “We have seen political climate change. We saw Covid and lost many family members. Alabama’s economic challenges aren’t changing – the minimum wage is still $7.25. People are struggling to eat and feed their children. When we talk about engaging voters, we need to remind them that there is hope… If we continue to focus on giving people hope, we will find that people will be more willing to vote because they feel like it’s important.”