‘Validating your voice by valuing your vote’

Community conversation in LaFayette tackles voter turnout, advocacy and upcoming election

BY SAM VISE

THE LAFAYETTE SUN

LAFAYETTE — Community leaders, advocates and electoral candidates on Sept. 19 gathered at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in LaFayette for a civic-minded community conversation centered on voter mobilization, registration rights and rural representation ahead of the upcoming Nov. 3 general election.

Moderated by the Rev. Vernon Carter of Berean International Inc. in Lanett, the nonpartisan forum carried the theme “Validating your voice by valuing your vote.”

“Something is happening in Chambers County and surrounding counties. It’s in the air,” Carter said. “What we’re experiencing is change, and change is inevitable. The real question is this, though: Will you become history, or will we make history? Will time pass us by, or will we affect our times?”

Carter pointed to voting participation data indicating that roughly 619,000 African American voters across Alabama are classified as infrequent or inactive, with nearly 10,000 residing in Chambers County alone.

“Church is not dead, but it has been struggling with a disease called apathy. And one cure for apathy is conversations,” Carter said. “When the church begins to talk, the community begins to listen. When the community listens, people become informed. When people become informed, they become engaged and eventually, they join the conversation.”

Mobilizing local communities and clarifying voting rights

Laticia Smith, president of the NAACP Lee County Branch 5038 and second vice president of the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP, emphasized civic engagement cannot stop at voter registration.

“We don’t have an issue in the state of Alabama with registering people to vote. We’re exceeding the national average,” Smith said. “The problem is we’re not getting out to vote, and we’re not making our voices heard. When we’re quiet, when we silence our voice, that becomes complicitness that says we don’t care.”

Smith also said Lee County serves as the closest active branch for Chambers County residents and invited attendees to participate in reactivating a local Chambers County branch or attend the Alabama State Conference annual convention in Lee County scheduled for Oct. 1-4.

Sandra Crim, candidate for Chambers County Commission District 5 and a 30-year veteran of law enforcement and student resource work with the Valley Police Department, spoke about her door-to-door efforts to register voters and connect residents with direct transportation to polling sites on Election Day.

“Looking at that list, there’s like 847 people on that list, and you wouldn’t believe the number or the percentage that is registered voters, but hasn’t voted,” Crim said. “We’re always stronger together. The numbers show we’re stronger together. We want everybody to come together for the same goal, achieve the same goal, support each other, be there for each other and when it comes to voting, encourage people to vote.”

Dori Miles, an attorney and co-founder of the nonprofit organization Return My Vote, broke down common misconceptions surrounding felony disenfranchisement in Alabama following the 2017 passage of the Definition of Moral Turpitude Act.

“Most people believe in Alabama, for some reason, that if you have a felony, you can’t vote,” Miles said. “Well, nothing is farther from the truth after the change in the law in 2017.”

Miles said the 2017 legislation established an explicit, limited statutory list of moral turpitude felonies that disqualify an individual from voting. Nonlisted offenses do not revoke voting rights in Alabama, while those with disqualifying convictions can apply for restoration once sentences and court-ordered financial obligations are completed without pending felony charges.

Navigating the ballot and election administration

Hope A. Haynes, chair of the Chambers County Board of Registrars and parliamentarian for the Alabama Association of Boards of Registrars, walked attendees through election logistics, poll requirements and constitutional amendments. 

Haynes reminded the public that the voter registration deadline for the Nov. 3 election is Monday, Oct. 19 (in-person, online or postmarked by mail). She stressed the importance of verifying registration status well before heading to the ballot box.

“Getting to the polls is not the time to find that out. Do that today, tomorrow or anywhere between there and Oct. 19,” Haynes said. “Check your [district] lines when you get your cards with your information. Please verify you are where you feel you need to be.”

Haynes also reviewed voter ID laws, provisional ballot protections and the four statewide constitutional amendments appearing on the November ballot:

- Amendment 1: Providing an election process for lieutenant governor if the seat becomes vacant during the first two years of a term.

- Amendment 2: Creating a formal framework for consolidating contiguous county school boards.

- Amendment 3: Requiring local school boards to adopt policies mandating the daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance and authorizing student-led prayer in K-12 public schools.

- Amendment 4: Requiring local school boards to adopt policies sanctioning or broadcasting the first stanza of “The Star-Spangled Banner” in public K-12 schools.

Legislative candidates focus on rural infrastructure, healthcare and education

Michelle French, Democratic candidate for Alabama House District 37, shared that her decision to run was heavily motivated by defending public schools against school voucher legislation.

“The reason that flipped me over into running was the CHOOSE Act, and it infuriated me,” French said. “My campaign platform is education, education, education. If we don’t improve our education, we can’t attract any sort of business, no economic development and we can’t attract healthcare, either.”

Lee McInnis, Democratic candidate for Alabama’s 3rd Congressional District, highlighted systemic shortages across the district’s 11 rural counties, citing extensive travel times for pediatric care, maternal health deserts and limited emergency medical transport.

“Here in Chambers County, if you live there, you have two ambulances that cover the entire west side of the county, and that’s 420 square miles,” McInnis said. “In the richest country in the world in 2026, every single person should be able to have the same chance to live a healthy life. That means everybody, every single person, 720,000 in this district, will have access to basic healthcare.”

McInnis also pledged support for working-class families, the PRO Act, veterans’ healthcare staffing and ethics reforms including congressional stock-trading bans and campaign finance limits.

State Rep. Phillip Ensler, Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, discussed his travels across 52 of Alabama’s 67 counties, emphasizing that leaders must stay accountable to local constituents rather than special interests.

“I frequently ask young people why they aren’t voting, or what it is they care about,” Ensler said. “To them, what they often say is they see the same thing happening over and over again ... but their overall quality of life hasn’t gotten better.”

Ensler touched on statewide priorities including expanding Medicaid to sustain rural hospital networks, instituting guardrails and a moratorium on data center construction to protect community utility and environmental resources, raising educator and retiree pensions and safeguarding retirement security against privatization efforts.

Attendees also heard an audio message sent from Doug Jones, the Democratic nominee for governor, who urged civic participation across Chambers County ahead of November.

Closing out the two-hour event, host pastor the Rev. Melvin Owens called on the congregation and community members to convert information into tangible action at the polls.

“Alabama ranks high in everything that you don’t want ... and yet the things that affect us [and] that determine our destiny, our future that shatters our dreams and dismantles our hopes, those things we neglect,” Owens said. “It’s incumbent on each of us — not just to talk, but to walk. Let’s ring some bells and knock on some doors. When we show up, stuff happens. When we show up, they get the message.”

For more information regarding the Nov. 3 general election in Alabama, visit www.sos.alabama.gov/alabama-votes/voter/election-information/2026.