{"id":437911,"date":"2026-10-26T01:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T01:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/437911\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T01:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T01:40:09","slug":"my-vote-is-my-voice-orange-county-groups-mobilize-black-voters-during-early-voting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/437911\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018My Vote Is My Voice\u2019: Orange County groups mobilize Black voters during early voting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Equal Ground and community partners rallied Orange County voters during the first weekend of early voting, combining food, music and family activities with a call to make their voices heard at the polls.<\/p>\n

\"Gail<\/a>ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\n

If you want to vote early in Central Florida, you have about a week left.<\/p>\n

Sunday, there was a massive get-out-the-vote effort in Orange County on this first weekend of early voting. <\/p>\n

Florida’s nonpartisan, not-for-profit Equal Ground is bringing together faith leaders and community members to mobilize hundreds of Black voters to the polls on the first weekend of early voting, here at the Northwest Neighborhood Center in Orlando.<\/p>\n

Jasmine Burney-Clark is the founder of Equal Ground Education Fund. <\/p>\n

“These are organizations that have been a part of turning voters out for years. They didn’t just get here. They have been on the front lines not only in our community but in the courtroom as well.”<\/p>\n

It’s a partnership with organizations including the National Congress of Black Women, Black Voters Matter, Florida League of Voters, and local elected leaders.<\/p>\n

“We just want folks to know, well, wake up, hey, it’s Election Time. So that’s really the big thing for today: let people know, hey, it’s election time, get the word out; let people see the activity, and Souls to the Polls have been a tradition for a really long time, for decades,\u201d Orlando City Commissioner of District 5 Shan Rose said.<\/p>\n

Leaders say you can’t start right when elections are coming; they educate from day one.<\/p>\n

Bishop Derrick McRae of the African American Council of Christian Clergy stated, “We have to make sure we highlight the issues to our congregants and tell them what’s kind of facing us, what’s on those amendments on the ballot as well; got to make them understand that DC is sexy, to vote DC, but local politics is really what influences and affects your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orange County voter Shakana Hall added, “We must get out and vote because our vote matters. So we have some that will not vote, or say they, ‘Oh, I no longer vote,’ but we are powerful; our numbers are powerful, but we must get out to vote to make change.”<\/p>\n

Many voters wore purple in recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and they brought families and friends.<\/p>\n

There were even bounce houses for the kids.<\/p>\n

It truly is a family affair, and of course you can’t have a family event without food.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody that’s going to vote today, they’re going to eat, and we know that food can move you,\u201d Bishop Derrick McRae added.<\/p>\n

Organizers say you must get out and vote because your vote matters. Early voting in Orange County ends Sunday, Nov. 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Equal Ground and community partners rallied Orange County voters during the first weekend of early voting, combining food,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[171256,171263,14255,171267,147,171257,25383,14496,171266,116675,121005,171265,1089,20588,86942,171262,171258,171259,171264,171260,1536,139,141,140,171261,992,7889,149788,5125,13983,24513],"class_list":["post-437911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-bishop-derrick-mcrae","tag-black-voter","tag-black-voters","tag-black-voters-matter","tag-central-florida","tag-central-florida-elections","tag-community-member","tag-early-voting","tag-election-time","tag-equal-ground","tag-equal-ground-education-fund","tag-faith-leader","tag-family","tag-first-weekend","tag-florida-elections-2026","tag-get-out-the-vote","tag-jasmine-burney-clark","tag-northwest-neighborhood-center","tag-orange-county-group","tag-orange-county-voting","tag-organization","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-orlando-voting","tag-people","tag-shan-rose","tag-souls-to-the-polls","tag-sunday","tag-vote","tag-voter-turnout"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437911","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=437911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}