Harrisburg organizations make final push to engage potential voters

Volunteers with the non-profit Power to the Hill held several canvassing days to support voter turnout in Allison Hill.

• Alanna Elder/WITF
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  Alanna Elder was a Report for America corps member who covered Latinos in central Pennsylvania and the 2020 election.

(Harrisburg) — Today is Pennsylvania’s voter registration deadline, and this past weekend the last chance for civic groups to encourage unregistered voters to turn out.

Volunteers with the non-profit Power to the Hill held several canvassing days to support voter turnout in the first, second and third precincts in the Allison Hill neighborhood. Leaders of the organization say the area has a low turnout rate and has been too often ignored by local government.

Instead of knocking on doors due to the coronavirus pandemic, they left materials on people’s doorsteps and talked to passerby.

Annette Nicolai spent most of the most recent canvass event, which took place two days before the voter registration deadline, collecting estimates of the number of households at each address. But she also helped one woman register.

“Tech is just not my favorite, but I’ve registered enough people on that app now, and she actually had her ID there and so that’s half the battle – getting accurate information and being able to understand,” she said.

In addition to voter engagement, the group is pushing for the city to repair streetlights in the neighborhood.

The following day, members of the Movement of Immigrant Leaders in Pennsylvania, or MILPA, met congregants outside the doors of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Harrisburg’s Allison Hill neighborhood.

MILPA’s Jonathan Quintino said one of the organization’s priorities is to register young Latino voters, particularly children of immigrants.

“It’s now been generations of people in this country and now their kids are of age to vote and though their parents cannot vote, they can vote, and I think that’s also been a crucial push for us,” he said.

Belonging to a mixed-status family may deter some citizens from registering because it means giving their address to the government.

But Quintino said, many young people, determined to advocate for immigrant family members, “are realizing  there’s just nothing to lose.”

The next big voting deadline is October 27, which is the last day to apply for a mail-in ballot.

 

WITF’s Alanna Elder is part of the “Report for America” program — a national service effort that places journalists in newsrooms across the country to report on under-covered topics and communities.