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Some southern states with early voting are reporting high turnout from Black voters. Voting rights activists attribute this to responses to redistricting efforts that weakened Black voters' power. The Gulf States Newsroom's Maya Miller reports.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Power to the people.
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Power to the people.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Power to the people.
MAYA MILLER, BYLINE: It's a packed room in Warren Hall at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi. Students are here for the Voting is No Laughing Matter tour. It's organized by Southern Poverty Law Center of Mississippi.
Aznii Welchlin says the threat of redistricting has her concerned for her community. She worries about the cost of education as a senior at Tougaloo.
AZNII WELCHLIN: We're losing so many rights, and we just can't keep going back, and we have to only push forward.
MILLER: Students who attend this event get a crash course in civics education from absentee voting to redistricting in Mississippi. Afterwards, they sign a pledge to vote on November 3 and to take a friend with them to the polls.
This will be the first election for freshman Muarib Abdul-Tawwab, and he's fired up.
MUARIB ABDUL-TAWWAB: Most of my friends, 'cause we're all incoming freshmen, we're mostly freshly 18, so we haven't voted before. But now we've been getting everybody registered to vote, so hopefully by November 3, we'll all be ready.
MILLER: This effort to engage young voters comes after several redistricting pushes in the Deep South. Alabama, Tennessee and Louisiana adjusted their political maps ahead of the November midterms to favor Republicans. More states could do so for the next election cycle.
Ever since the April Supreme Court ruling that weakened the Voting Rights Act, some Southern states have had higher Black voter turnout this year than in previous primary elections, says Ellis Bates. He's an elections analyst with VoteHub and says more Black voters are also showing up for the general election.
ELLIS BATES: We're seeing presidential-level turnout in South Carolina. We're seeing Blacks outvote the percentage that they are in the population in Louisiana, where the case originated from. And we're seeing Black turnout in Georgia's early vote. It's roughly 6% higher than it was at this point in time in 2024's early vote. So just across the South, there's this energy after the Callais decision.
MILLER: That redistricting decision matters a lot to Jelyse Davis. She's a student volunteer in neighboring Louisiana with the group People's Promise Youth Division.
JELYSE DAVIS: I think it was a direct assault against representation for Black Americans, especially Black Louisianians.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: November 3, Election Day. Get out and vote, vote, vote.
MILLER: About a dozen young members of PPYD are canvassing in Cherokee Park, a majority Black neighborhood in Shreveport, Louisiana. Makayla Jones is the college president of the group. She says they want to change the narrative that young people aren't doing the work of mobilizing voters.
MAKAYLA JONES: I want to prove them wrong. We are out here working. We stay working around the clock. We do this 24/7. We don't stop moving.
MILLER: And she says they'll keep moving, even past next week's election to help grow Black voter engagement.
For NPR News, I'm Maya Miller in Shreveport, Louisiana. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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