Election 2024 Immigration Voting rights organization prioritizes outreach to low-income, immigrant communities

This article was originally published in Maine Morning Star. 

On Friday afternoon, Jo Trafford knocked on doors up and down hallways of a building in the Hyacinth Place complex in Westbrook. As people answered their doors, Trafford introduced herself and asked if they had plans to vote. 

A woman at the end of the hallway opened her front door as Trafford was talking to her neighbor, curious about what Trafford was discussing. She admitted to being unsure about voting because of “all the drama” in national politics, and because she was afraid to make an uninformed decision.  

“Just forget the drama, and say ‘what are my values? What’s important to me?’” Trafford said. “You don’t have to solve the problems of the world. Just look up two or three things that are important to you, and you can vote.”

Trafford and three other volunteers knocked on dozens of doors last Friday afternoon as part of neighbor-to-neighbor canvassing organized by the League of Women Voters of Maine, an offshoot of the national nonpartisan organization working to expand voting rights. Every week or so, volunteers knock on doors, hand out information in multiple languages on voting and help people register to vote, focusing on people in low-income housing, including immigrants. 

The success of the canvassing isn’t measured in how many people the volunteers get registered to vote, but in making connections and ensuring people who are often marginalized are invited to participate in democracy, according to Evan Murray, League of Women Voters’ civic engagement director.

The neighbor-to-neighbor canvassing originally started as a way to reach immigrants and refugees, and worked with low income housing providers. Avesta Housing, which offers affordable housing across southern Maine, was the league’s first partner, and most canvassing efforts are still focused on Avesta-owned properties in Maine, such as Hyacinth Place.

Before heading out to knock on doors, Murray trained first-time volunteers on how to register people to vote and share the resources available in the League of Women Voters’ voter guide, which lays out state and national candidates’ platforms. 

“If you live in low-income housing, you’re already in a group of people that we are concerned about being marginalized, but then we also want to make sure that we’re connecting specifically with people new to the country,” he said to volunteers during the training session. 

“The mission of the league is to make democracy work by making sure everyone is engaged and involved and has the tools that they need, and we are most concerned with the folks who are the least likely to participate and trying to overcome some of those barriers.”

Trafford, a retired teacher who now volunteers her time to canvas for the league at least once a week, said the rewarding nature of talking to people who are often overlooked and making sure they know their voting rights, have information on absentee ballots and early voting, and are aware of the resources available to them keeps her coming back.

“It’s all about connection and conversations,” she said. “Whether I get the little green card filled out or not, I have conversations, and that’s a really beautiful thing.”

Outreach to Maine’s immigrants amid national undocumented immigrant voting allegations 

While it is illegal for anyone who is not a U.S. citizen to vote, some Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson and former President Donald Trump have repeatedly claimed that “potentially hundreds of thousands of votes” have been cast by undocumented immigrants in national elections, and that there has been an increase in undocumented immigrants and noncitizens registering to vote in several swing states recently. 

A CNN data investigation found that it is extremely rare for non-citizens to vote in US elections, since states check different forms of identification, including drivers licenses and social security numbers, to determine eligibility.  

Nonpartisan voting experts have said the risk of prosecution and deportation is an effective deterrent for people who have already sacrificed a lot to come to the US, according to the CNN article.

At the neighbor-to-neighbor canvassing, Murray makes it clear to volunteers that noncitizens can’t vote, but they should still engage with residents if they’re not citizens to make them feel included, and offer the informational booklets that the league publishes in English, French and Portuguese, if they are interested.

“When we talk to people who aren’t citizens, we don’t assume they’re not connected,” Murray told volunteers Deborah Roose and David Snyder, who traveled from Jefferson, where they live part of the year.

“We often ask if they still like the books that we have about how voting works for when they are a citizen.”

Roose and Synder later knocked on the door of Isabel Gomes, who lives in one of the Hyacinth Place apartment buildings with her husband and children. After Roose introduced herself and asked if anyone was a citizen, Gomes said no, but accepted the information booklet in Portuguese that Roose offered.

“Let’s hope you can become citizens and then vote,” she told Gomes. 

“Yes, it’s very important,” Gomes responded.