‘A lot of work to do’: Omaha group trying to increase Black voter turnout

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Last October, nonprofit group Black Votes Matter Institute of Community Engagement began a door-to-door campaign and sent emails and text messages encouraging North Omaha residents to register to vote.

It held voter registration events too.

Its goal was to get 15,000 new voters registered in Legislative Districts 11 and 13 for the 2024 election cycle. On top of that, they wanted those districts to have a 60 percent turnout for the primary and a 70 percent turnout in the general election.

Since the group’s campaign began, the Douglas County Election Commission said those two districts saw 1,475 new registered voters. Their turnout for the primary was 21.6 percent.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Black Votes Matter board chair Pastor T. Michael Williams. “I think the community needs to be further engaged, certainly.”

But how was May’s turnout compared to the 2020 Presidential Primary? The county election commission said it’s tough to tell, partly because of redistricting in 2021.

The May primary was the first statewide election since the new voter ID law went into effect.

Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen has said the turnout was lower than he expected across the state.

Williams feels the new law did not have much of an impact on North Omaha though.

“I do not think that was a problem with this election, but I do think it created more work for those groups like Black Votes Matter, like League of Women Voters.”

He feels the political climate has more to do with it.

“I think we have a situation in our country where there’s so much division, and people are turned off by it, that they aren’t engaged.”

He said there’s still a bright side to all this. The entire county’s turnout for the primary was 26.8 percent, and North Omaha’s wasn’t that far behind.

“Those two legislative districts that we’re talking about usually vote 10-12 percent below the county average,” Williams said. “So if the county is at 40 percent, usually, they’re at 30 or 28.

“That percentage gap diminished, and we’re glad about that. That’s a positive, and we want to keep working to get the districts voting at the same rate that the full Douglas County turnout is, at least.”

Despite not achieving the turnout they aimed for in May, Williams said their goal is still to get 70 percent of registered North Omaha voters to the polls in the general election.

To do that, he said they’re going to have even more people knocking on doors.

“We’re going to multiply the number of people going out doing that. “We’re going to also have a series of events in which we’re doing voter registration as well.”

Williams said they’ll have a full plan within the next couple of weeks.

If you would like to volunteer for Black Votes Matter’s efforts, send an email to pastorhawkins@weareantiochomaha.org.

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