CLEVELAND — As the November election approaches, the October 7 deadline to register to vote in Ohio is top of mind for members of local chapters of Black sororities and fraternities, collectively known as the Divine Nine.
“This is a democracy," says Meredith Turner, a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc who also serves on Cuyahoga County Council. “The currency that we all need to be able to participate in our democracy is our ability to cast our vote and have it count.”
Turner is helping to organize an effort to register people to vote at all open houses Wednesday and Thursday at schools in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.
“Part of our engagement strategy is involving the community to come into our buildings to provide resources for our family,” says CMSD Family and Community Engagement Program Manager Anthony Brown.
Brown is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
“The biggest thing about engagement is providing families not just the academic, but also providing families information about civic engagement, which is also part of the learning process,” Brown adds.
Members of local chapters of historically Black Sororities and Fraternities — which include Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority and Iota Phi Theta Fraternity — are volunteering at schools through this effort.
“This initiative is brand new,” Brown asserts. “Never have we done a collaborative effort across the entire school district and involving so many community partners to be part of such a historic election process.”
Their goal is to engage families and eligible high school students in the democratic process.
“We are non-partisan, we are not supporting any candidate,” Turner says. “This is all about registration, education and then ultimately mobilization to the polls.”
Volunteers, which include members of 20 other local organizations, will help people with checking their voter registration status, polling locations, and offer information and resources about the November General Election.
“We just want to make sure that they have in their toolkit the ability to be a civic engager,” Turner says. “That starts with being a registered voter.”