Kamora Greggs returned to her college campus with voting on her mind. She’d just visited her home in Jackson, Mississippi, about three hours away, when her mom encouraged her to exercise her right.
“And don’t have anybody change your mind about what you want to do,” Greggs recalled.
As a first time voter, the 19-year-old health and kinesiology major wanted to know more about the process, the role of government, and hear directly from her peers about why they thought voting is important.
She and dozens of other Coahoma Community College students participated in a September town hall – playing games like Levels, learning history and the power of the ballot box — at their school in Clarksdale.
“It’s a good way to learn with your friends,” Greggs said. “It really impacted me and made me want to actually get out there and spread the word and make sure other people my age know that it’s a good idea to get registered to vote.”
With Election Day just weeks away, the experience is part of the Voting Is No Laughing Matter Tour. Rita Brent, an Emmy-winning comedian from Jackson, partnered with the Southern Poverty Law Center to host the five-stop campus initiative, which aims to empower students at the ballot box.
“To witness young people who are not only civically engaged but genuinely concerned about the state of our communities, our country, and the world gives me tremendous hope,” Brent said. “Their passion for justice, thirst for knowledge and their commitment to creating meaningful change remind me that our future is in capable hands.”
It mirrors renewed energy in civic engagement nationwide. It is one of several efforts focused on what some are calling the forgotten voters: college students, first-time voters, and the formerly incarcerated.
In another effort to mobilize younger voters, companies and groups transformed campus spaces into art installations, alongside on-site voter registration. And in North Carolina, a group is working to engage more with formerly incarcerated people who don’t always utilize their right to vote.
Since the weakening of the Voting Rights Act, attention has shifted to the South, where many communities are underserved, organizers told Capital B. The region is both a battleground and testing ground for voting rights. Decades of voter suppression, gerrymandering or redistricting, and landmark decisions such as Louisiana v. Callais have shaped the current political landscape.
In Mississippi, citizens don’t have an option when it comes to whether to vote or not, said Waikinya Clanton, the state’s director for the SPLC. Despite the decline in voter participation, it’s more about conditions, racism, and restricting access and opportunity.
Black voters live in states with the most restrictive voting laws
In the Magnolia State, an appeals court recently refused to overturn a centuries-old lifetime voting ban for those with certain felony convictions, which was embedded in the state’s constitution. Nearly 60% of people who lost their right under this law were Black. Mississippi also does not offer early voting or drop boxes.
“So many people have felt disillusioned by the fact that they don’t feel like their vote matters. It can be depressing for people who are really trying to find their way out,” Clanton said. “For folks to be working so adamantly to make people feel like their votes don’t matter, that’s a problem.”
Over the past five years, 86 million eligible voters – about one-third nationwide – live in states that have passed more restrictive voting and election-related laws, according to a new report by the Movement Advancement Project. It is disproportionately impacting Black adults in the South, said Brian Hinkle, author of the report and senior democracy program manager for MAP.
“It was really striking that we saw that the Americans who live in the states with the most restrictive voting laws are disproportionately Black. While that was also true in 2021, the proportion has nearly doubled in the last five years, from 27% to over 48%,” Hinkle said.
According to the MAP report, the 2020 election and subsequent Jan. 6 attack prompted an unprecedented wave of state legislation limiting voter access. For example, 13 states passed laws that gave state legislatures the power to interfere in elections, which allowed them to replace or remove election administrators locally. At least eight states passed stricter voter ID laws. Sixteen states banned drop boxes, which is more than triple the number in 2021.
“I think it mirrors the broader kind of polarization in our society. With some states taking one view of what free and fair elections look like, and other states taking a different view,” Hinkle told Capital B. “Heading into the midterms, for example, a voter that lives in Atlanta or a voter that lives in Denver are going to head to the polls under fundamentally different sets of rules.”
The report is the result of a yearslong effort called the Democracy Maps, which tracks policy areas in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Some of the policies such as restrictions on mail voting, drop boxes and voter ID can acutely impact rural communities, too, he added.
Mobilizing those left behind
From his home in North Carolina to Georgia and Tennessee, Daryl Atkinson witnesses firsthand how difficult it is for people with criminal records and their families to navigate voting systems. As executive director of Second Chance Federation, Atkinson leads a team providing legal services, leadership development, community organizing, and civic engagement.
There are 19 million people convicted of felonies in North Carolina. A person with a felony conviction can vote after they complete their sentence or supervision. People in this demographic, Atkinson said, are considered low-propensity voters and often show up to the polls around 50%. He believes this is why most political parties don’t engage with this population. As a result, they suffer the “collateral consequences” of arrest and conviction, which impact their civic participation.
“We believe those people are sleeping giants to a more inclusive, vibrant, and multiracial democracy.” Atkinson said. “They are really high opportunity voters.”
Atkinson approaches the work as quid pro quo: if a justice-involved person needs legal services to help get a driver’s license or fees reduced, for example, Second Chance may ask them to show up to a community event or participate in a phone bank.
“We engage our people year-round, and we engage our people around their most pressing legal needs. But we do that in a way that’s not charity,” he added.
Back in Mississippi, college students like Madison Nichols-Harris, 19, say it feels like they are an often-overlooked population when it comes to voting. More times than she can count, she’s heard people say “Just go vote,” without any context or information about why it matters.
For a while, she didn’t take it that seriously. She said she will cast her first ballot in November, and she’s been seeking more information about voting.
Nichols-Harris said she believes social media is causing additional distractions, which she said may contribute to lack of engagement around elections by some in her generation. Instead of running to TikTok or Instagram, she attended the event at Coahoma Community College.
She listened to a panelist who explained how difficult it was for Black people, and women, to obtain the right to vote. She walked away energized in a way she couldn’t explain, she said.
“She emphasized that our present is what’s going to affect our future, so we should at least share the message and create the change we want to see,” Nichols-Harris added. “If we bring more conversations about voting and about what’s going on in the world today, I feel like it can change minds.”
It’s why the SPLC says it has doubled down its efforts to reach young people. There are children’s books, workshops, and even physical games to create an opportunity for learning, Clanton said. It’s not about going out to the polls for one day but to be inspired, whether it’s signing up to be a poll worker or speaking out at a local city council meeting.
“Voter suppression impacts everything from your healthcare, your quality of education, to your roads, your bridges, your water that’s coming out of your faucet to being able to determine whether or not you want a data center in your community,” Clanton said. “All of that is connected to your vote. If we’re not engaged in each and every election, we’re missing out on opportunities to transform the way that our state exists and how we exist within it.”
After attending the campus event, Greggs said she is motivated to get more students involved in the electoral process.
“Homecoming is coming up, and I can talk with an adult that can help me plan something that can have more people ready and prepared before voting time starts in November,” she added. “If that’s not the case, I’ll just continue to walk around and encourage my fellow Coahoma students to vote.”
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