By Dr. John E. Warren, Publisher
Next week, the California Secretary of State will mail out ballots to all registered voters in the State of California. This means there will be an opportunity for each person registered in the state to vote in the Recall Election. Although the state has allocated over $238 million for this election and nearly $600,000 of that is slated to go to San Diego County, it appears that the Election Services Manager for the Office of the Secretary of State has decided that websites and press releases will be sufficient for notice and due process in terms of reaching voters. This is of particular importance because there is a difference between issuing a press release, which may or may not run at the discretion of the media outlet, as opposed to placing ads which have been recognized under the California Government as the official means of providing notice.
It has been estimated that Republicans and Independents are more likely to vote in an off year non publicized election because of what might be their special interest, as opposed to all registered voters who are more likely to vote if given proper notice of the election, which is the avenue the California Government Code provides in terms of giving notice through newspapers of general circulation as recognized by the State of California.
There are over 25 Black owned newspapers and media outlets in the State of California. They constitute what the Secretary of State has called “community media”. The proof of our inclusion, so far, has not been realized.
Although the Secretary of State’s Election Service Manager has sent out an extensive Memorandum concerning an August 19, 2021 Ballot Design Advisory Committee meeting, the issue of media outreach raised here has not been addressed. The couple of ads that have gone out are so small and spaced weeks between runs as to not encourage voter participation when dollars are available to do much more. For example, our media partner, GOD Radio 1 has not been contacted at all. Perhaps we need to remind those in charge of this election that, during the pandemic, we had insufficient WiFi for most of our children to do their school work. How is it now that we are supposed to have sufficient WiFi to follow the Secretary of State and the County Registrar of Voters in this election process.
While there are two questions on the ballot, Black voters should be thinking in terms of only one question if they have no idea of the more than 40 persons also on the ballot seeking to replace the Governor. The first question is: “Should the Governor Be Recalled? “ Yes” or “No”. A majority “No” vote means he stays in office. If the decision is to replace him, then one must carefully consider who that should be. A “Yes” vote opens the door to one of the alternatives. All voters should vote for their interest. For Black voters, this is an opportunity to serve notice on those who are planning to run for office in this state with very little or no concern for our collective vote.
For Black voters, the September election is more than a recall. Let’s make the best of it.
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