With early voting underway in Florida’s August primary, Black civic organizations are urging voters to make a plan, learn the rules and cast ballots in races that could shape their communities long before November’s general election.
The push comes amid low turnout in Miami-Dade County and rapidly changing voting rights and rules. By Tuesday, Aug. 11, after one week of in-person early voting, 101,246 of the county’s 1.3 million registered voters — about 8% — had cast ballots by mail or in person ahead of the primary election on Aug. 18, according to Miami-Dade Supervisor of Electionsdata. Registered Democrats accounted for roughly 48,000 ballots, Republicans for 34,689 and voters without party affiliation for about 17,000.
The numbers sharpen organizers’ message: Voting is already happening, so get up, go out, and vote.
“Participating in the primary is your first step to determine what will happen in the general election,” said Daniella Pierre, president of the NAACP Miami-Dade Branch. “Oftentimes in the primary election, you get a chance to decide on your school board. You often get a chance to decide on your county commission, and other local races are decided in that primary.”
Urgency and frustration on the ground
Organizations are seeing different levels of enthusiasm among Black voters.
Genesis Robinson, executive director of Florida voting-rights organization Equal Ground, said voters are embracing the prospect of choosing new leaders.
“I think Black voters are excited about the opportunity to have new leadership,” Robinson said. “We have seen a failure amongst current elected leaders to address some of the issues that are central and priority to our community.”
Jamil Davis, lead organizer for national organization Black Voters Matter, also described “a heightened energy,” with voters paying closer attention to candidates and ballot measures.
In Miami-Dade County, however, Pierre said the NAACP has seen a “lack of urgency” among voters.
“What we're seeing appears to be a lack of urgency around the importance and significance of voting, and partly because a good number of community residents have expressed concerns of not seeing change happening for them individually and as a collective whole,” she said.
Organizations said voter disengagement is not driven by a single issue. They pointed to misinformation, confusing election rules, economic hardship and frustration with elected officials as overlapping barriers to participation.
Pierre said some residents do not understand their ballots, the importance of primaries or how voting connects to change. Others believe voting has not improved their lives or access to elected officials.
Immediate needs can also take priority.
“For a Black voter who may have an issue with finding affordable housing, what’s priority to that voter right now is a safe, decent and affordable place to live,” Pierre said.
Healthcare, food and childcare costs pose similar obstacles.
Davis also identified affordability — including groceries, gas, housing and healthcare — as the main concern expressed during outreach.
Voting rights, confusion and changes
This year’s elections follow the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which organizers say gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and weakened challenges to maps that dilute minority voting strength. The ruling came as the nation marked the law’s 61st anniversary.
Robinson called the Voting Rights Act “one of the seminal and crowning achievements of the Civil Rights Movement,” noting that it helped compel Florida to create districts where Black voters could elect their preferred candidates.
“Although it has been diminished through the Louisiana v. Callais decision, I think it should be a call to action to all of us to do whatever we can to enshrine voting rights and protect access to the ballot box of democracy,” he said.
Davis said the effects of the decision were immediate in Florida.
“Immediately, the day that Louisiana vs. Callais was decided by the Supreme Court, we were already in the second day of the special session around the drawing of the maps,” Davis said. “And it put us in a position where more congressional districts were redrawn in a way that would call for a partisan gerrymandering in the state of Florida.”
However, research by the Black Opposition Coalition suggests that attacks on voting rights may motivate more Black voters to participate.
The study found 64% of Black voters said such attacks and Southern gerrymandering made them more likely to vote in the midterms. It also found 75% were willing to take at least three political actions — such as voting, protesting or boycotting — up from 62% in October 2025.
The coalition has studied Black voter attitudes since last year.
Voting-rights groups are also countering confusion about vote-by-mail and other election rules. Vote-by-mail requests for Florida’s August primaries have fallen from more than 4 million in 2022 to about 1.9 million this cycle. The decline follows years of partisan attacks on mail ballots, including President Donald Trump’s claim that they are “inherently corrupt,” and tighter state restrictions.
Florida’s 2021 Senate Bill 90 ended standing vote-by-mail requests across election cycles, requiring a new request each even-numbered year. Trump’s administration has also asked the Supreme Court to allow portions of an executive order imposing additional mail-voting restrictions to proceed, although organizers said those federal changes would not take effect for the current election.
Robinson noted that Florida already has many of the provisions outlined in the executive order; for example, the state already requires mailed ballots to be received by Election Day, one provision targeted by the federal order. He said years of state legislation have reduced mail-ballot access and allowed voters to be “purged” from request lists.
“We have to remain vigilant and make sure that we're educating people around all the pathways that they have to be able to access the ballot box, to ensure that they're preparing and that no one's caught off guard with any of these changes that would disenfranchise them from being able to participate,” Robinson said.
Robinson said discussion of Florida’s documentary-proof-of-citizenship law, effective 2027, has led some voters to believe it already applies and that they’ll need a passport to vote this year.
Davis said partner organizations will explain next year’s requirements after November.
“We don’t want to confuse voters and cause even more alarm,” he said.
Pierre similarly warned of “information overload.”
“That may have given voters who are not engaged day to day some trepidation with going to vote,” she said. “That could be intimidating for people who are not engaged civically day to day.”
Why the primary matters
All three organizations stressed that many local races can be decided before November; for instance, the Aug. 18 election will determine the winner in the universal primary for Florida House District 109 and could decide the Miami-Dade County Commission District 2 and District 8 races, as well as Miami Gardens Council races for Residential Area Seats 2 and 4. Contests in which no candidate receives the required majority would proceed to a November runoff.
“Midterms matter — all terms, all elections matter,” Pierre said. “It's very clear if you don't vote, don't complain about what's not happening in the community.”
The NAACP Miami-Dade Branch is sharing nonpartisan information online, in print and through street outreach, while recruiting poll workers and encouraging residents to research candidates.
“Black voters need to have a plan to vote,” she said. “Don’t wait till you get to your polling site to determine who to vote for. Go in there so you can make an informed decision.”
Equal Ground just finished its Legislative Session Debrief Tour and is now shifting from voter education to turnout work through phone banking, canvassing and direct and relational organizing.
For Miami-Dade voters, 23 early-voting sites are open through Aug. 16, with weekday hours running from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Aug. 14 and weekend hours from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“Now more than ever,” Robinson said, “we need you to make sure that you're exercising your voice to select leaders who are going to determine your future.”
This story was produced by The Miami Times, one of the oldest Black-owned newspapers in the country, as part of a content sharing partnership with the WLRN newsroom. Read more at miamitimesonline.com.
