The experiences of citizens who have faced down ICE’s massive surges have played a huge factor.
“Folks in these places that have really come face-to-face with some of the worst of the ICE violence are feeling like they understand that preparation is key,” Jill Garvey, executive director of States at the Core, a group that combats authoritarianism and political extremism, tells WIRED. “They understand how traumatizing this is, how chaotic it is. I think they want to be as prepared as possible for any scenario.”
But Garvey says that facing down ICE already means these communities are “frankly, a little less scared. They have faced this already, and it’s scary, but they also know that it’s possible, and that the escalation can happen very, very quickly.”
Living United for Change in Arizona is a group that targets working-class Latino voters with its get-out-the-vote efforts. In one recent week, volunteers knocked on thousands of doors, César Fierros, a spokesperson for the group tells WIRED. 1,000 people told the group they voted early or mailed their ballots back. “That’s a really good sign; that’s something that we have really never seen before,” Fierros says. “People are saying ‘Yes, there are threats out there, looming, but we’re still going to show up regardless.”
In DeKalb County in Georgia, volunteers from the Save America Movement, an anti-Trump group, heard similar messages from people streaming into early polling locations earlier this month.
“We’re hearing it everywhere our Vote Safe team members are,” Mary Corcoran, cofounder and executive director of the Save America Movement, tells WIRED. “Voters came through in a steady stream from the moment the polls opened until they closed. Person after person told our team that nothing was going to keep them from voting this year. People know what this administration is trying to do, and they are refusing to be scared out of their own democracy.”
In Nevada, secretary of state Cisco Aguilar, who is running for reelection against election denier Jim Marchant, believes that in order to convince reticent voters to show up, elected leaders need to “get real.”
“I did a Latino community event [and said] we have to actually fucking vote to tell these motherfuckers to fuck off,” Aguilar tells WIRED. “And when you get real with them about that, and they know that you’re willing to stand up and fight for them, then they are willing to consider showing up to vote.”
This is a sentiment echoed by Suzanne Almeida, vice president of states with voting rights group Common Cause, who says it’s important to “lean into that defiance” and tell voters “that the opposition wouldn’t be making it so difficult if there wasn’t power in voting.”
“The threats are real, but so is the joy, and there is a real joy that comes in participating in democracy,” Almeida says.