73% of eligible voters in Duval County<\/a> participated in the general election. That was the lowest turnout for a presidential election in 20 years.<\/p>\nThe Black and Hispanic electorate \u2014 of 66.4% and 64.5% respectively \u2014 participated at lower levels than 79.1% of white voters in Duval County.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are people who died in order for us to be able to have the right to vote,\u201d says Dweise A. Harris, president-elect of the Upsilon Lambda chapter. \u201cVoting is our voice. Our voice is important. Voting, a lot of times, affects what\u2019s happening now and in the future for future generations. It\u2019s important to get out and vote because that is our voice.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Upsilon Lambda chapter is one of Jacksonville\u2019s oldest community service organizations. Since 1925, its membership has advocated for voter registration drives, provided voter information and pushed public policies that uplift Black Americans.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\t\tMembers of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., as well as the community at large, listened to a voter information seminar inside the Jacksonville Public Library on Tuesday, July 14, 2026. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason why we (were) here at this Voteless People is a Hopeless People event is to get knowledge and to get people engaged,\u201d Harris says. \u201cKeeping hope alive is why we\u2019re here. It is our hope that this town hall turns our hope into action.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018What\u2019s at stake\u2019<\/p>\n
It gave people like Jean Narcisse an opportunity to ask candidates where they stood.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\t\tJean Narcisse listens to gubernatorial candidate Dayna Marie Foster describe her platform after a voter information seminar held by the Upsilon Lambda chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, inside the Jacksonville Public Library. Narcisse says he asked Foster her position on voter suppression efforts in Florida. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today<\/p>\n
Six candidates joined the Alphas inside the Jacksonville Public Library on Tuesday night. All of them were Black women.<\/p>\n
Afterward, Foster, Green, Tutson and Butler took questions from potential constituents.<\/p>\n
Amid the raindrops and thunderbolts in Downtown, Jacksonville Today asked Foster about the importance that Black women may have this election season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe importance of us running is we, truly, understand what\u2019s at stake,\u201d Foster said. \u201cWhen we talk about Black women, we are always stepping up to the call of action.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foster mentioned the strength, resilience and backbone Black women have showcased during the third decade of the 21st century.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to have leaders who are bold and fearless. We need to have people who are fighting for their constituents, and that is a Black woman, every, single, day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Making a plan to vote<\/p>\n
For Selah Bishop, Ph.D., the evening was an opportunity to not only enlighten voters, but to provide information to voters so they can then inform their spheres of influence.<\/p>\n
Bishop has served as a poll worker in Duval County for more than a decade. In that time he has witnessed countless voters who have been unaware of new systems and processes that may have been implemented.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was one of the biggest things, to have someone from the Supervisor of Elections (Office) to answer those questions that voters have,\u201d Bishop said. \u201cIf we can get voters prepared before the election starts, it will be a smoother process. \u2026 When they go to the booth, they know exactly what needs to be done, how to do it without any questions, and there won\u2019t be a lot of frustration at the polls.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Duval County\u2019s electoral turnout fell well below expectations two years ago, it motivated the Upsilon Lambda chapter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-341356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}