With the presidential election coming to an end in two days, Jill Biden stopped by the capital city on the last day of early voting in Florida for a “Souls to the Polls” event.
“Souls to the Polls” is an early voting initiative in which the Sunday before Election Day, Black churches preach to their congregations about the need for Black voters to take part in the election. After services, attendees either march or carpool to an early voting site to boost voter turnout.
Biden’s visit was designed to get voters excited about casting their ballot and making sure they understood the importance of voting.
“This is it. We can’t sit back and watch what happens, we have to decide what happens. Our voices are more powerful than we know, especially in Florida,” the former vice president’s wife said.
On this stop in Tallahassee, attendees gathered at Bethel Missionary Baptist church to hear from Biden, civil rights attorney Ben Crump and other leaders of the Democratic Party about the importance of voting. From the church, attendees marched to the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center for a rally and an opportunity to vote.
Robyn Seniors, a fourth-year business administration student at FAMU and national co-chair of HBCU Students for the Biden-Harris campaign, spoke at the rally.
“This is the most important election of my lifetime,” Seniors said. “The battle for the soul of our country is at stake. To effect change, we must get out and exercise our right to vote like our lives depend on it.”
Florida is the largest key battleground state, with the average margin of victory for presidential candidates rarely more than 2 percent. Barack Obama carried Florida while winning the presidency in 2008 and 2012 while Trump won Florida by a slim margin in 2016.
Zachary Defazio attended Sunday’s rally and said he believes voting is important. “Everyone thinks that their vote is only one vote out of millions of people in the country, but in 2016 not everyone went out to vote and we are seeing the effects of the inaction and people not going to the polls. Voting is a right we need to take apart of or else we cannot complain about what’s taking place if we don’t vote for change,” he said.
Early voting ended Sunday. For more information on polling locations and times for voting on Tuesday, Nov. 3, visit www.leonvotes.gov.