Taking refuge in the shadow of the Little Haiti Cultural Complex, a group of women sits next to a cooler chest full of ice and soft drinks. It’s 90 degrees outside, with a “feels like” temperature of 105, but the women are chatting casually. Each is wearing a T-shirt for a different candidate in this month’s Primary Election.
These women are campaign workers — tasked by separate local candidates to hand out flyers and convince folks walking into the polls during early voting to pick their patron.
The heat and the lack of foot traffic at the Little Haiti polling place has brought the women together, even though they work for different campaigns.
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“We are a group of four here and really, it's like family. I didn't know any of these people when I got here but they all were so friendly. We're like peas in a bag,” Barbara Allen told WLRN on Tuesday.
This is the first campaign Allen has worked on. She’s campaigning for her brother, Rickey Mitchell, who’s running for Miami-Dade County Sheriff.
The heat has been an issue for Allen, who said she’d do anything for her brother and will continue to be out campaigning for another week.
“It's been fine, but this heat is very hard out here. I can't take heat,” she said. "But we have everything right here for us, our waters, our juice and our refreshments. God is good."
At that last remark, the other campaign workers respond in chorus: "All the time."
Record heat
This summer has seen record-breaking heat in South Florida. The past few years have been some of the hottest on record, and workers in outdoors spaces have been particularly at risk for heat related-illnesses.
In the middle of an election cycle, poll workers and campaign personnel are exposed to the dangerous temperatures as they try to help or persuade incoming voters at outdoor polling stations like the Little Haiti Cultural Complex.
Still, the women are determined to make it through the primary.
“It’s been very hot. The sun is killing me, but it’s okay. I’m a fighter,” said Debra Yearby, who’s campaigning for Audrey Edmonson for the Miami-Dade County Commission.
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Caroline Brown has been campaigning in Little Haiti for close to two weeks. It’s been slow. Only a little over 400 people have cast ballots there during early voting at the time of writing. On Tuesday, only 61 people voted.
Low turnout and the temperature haven’t deterred Brown, however, who takes her lunch with Yearby and the other women under the shade of an awning when she’s not handing out flyers for Marion K. Brown (no relation), who is running for the same county commission seat as Audrey Edmonson.
“It’s the way I was raised. My momma always said help one another and another will help you, so I don’t mind helping people. Helping Marion and helping voters know where to vote,” she said.
Early voting for the August Primary Election runs through Sunday, Aug. 18. Election day is Tuesday, Aug. 20. Voters can find their sample ballot and a list of early voting locations on the Miami-Dade County Elections website.
