Last month, more than a hundred people sat in the auditorium of Dollye M. E. Robinson Hall at Jackson State University. It was a Tuesday night, and nearly all of the mayoral candidates in a stacked primary race waited patiently near the front of the room readying for their turn to share their platforms. 

It was the first time that JSU Votes hosted an event such as this, creating an opportunity for residents and students to meet the candidates. The organization partnered with The League of Women Voters Jackson Area for the forum.

“We just want to try our best to make sure that the people of our generation understand that politics is important … not just the presidential election either, but also the mayor and city council is just as important,” said Amiyah Banks, vice president of the campus organization.

However, when the primary Election Day came around, the precinct located at Jackson State University’s Student Center had the lowest turnout after only 1% of its registered voters visited the polls. In a precinct with 2,600 registered voters, 27 ballots were cast on April 1.

“ I don’t think people realize it’s powerful to use your vote to say you know what you want to change, what you want to fix within your community. That’s powerful,” Banks said. “I don’t think people realize all that our ancestors had to go through to even just get the ability to vote. So it’s very disappointing when they don’t go out to the polls.”

Jacksonians will have another chance to make their voices heard in the municipal Democratic primary, which historically decides who will be mayor, by voting in the Tuesday runoff between incumbent Mayor Chokwe Lumumba and longtime state senator John Horhn. Runoff elections typically see lower turnout, which could play a factor in the results.

Savina Schoenhofer is with the League of Women Voters Jackson Area. She’s the chair of the Get Out the Vote Committee. She said that in a democracy, it’s important to have civic participation.

“ It’s our voice. The vote is our voice, and this is a democracy, and so that means it’s of the people, by the people and for the people and the way we the people live. Our democracy is in large part by voting,” Schoenhofer said.

The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that works to educate citizens of their voting rights and support voter access on both the local and national level. Schoenhofer said she doesn’t like to focus on the concept of voter apathy as much as she hopes to encourage students to be active participants in democracy.

“I think, ‘Wow, if we don’t have students involved, we’re not gonna have voters tomorrow or next year,’” she said. “We’re already seeing the results of that and I attribute it and a lot of people attribute the decreased interest in citizen participation in government to the absence of civics education in the schools.”

But what does it mean for a community when there’s low turnout? 

“It means things happen to them, and not with them and by them,” Schoenhofer said. “We can’t have that. If we’re gonna have a democracy, we have to have participation.”

The precincts with the lowest turnout are located in Wards 5, 6 and 7. At Precinct 73, which is located at Key Elementary School on McDowell Road in southwest Jackson, there are 1,065 registered voters, but only 99 votes were cast on April 1. Similarly, turnout was low at Shirley Elementary and St. Luther Baptist Church, where just around 11% of registered voters cast a ballot. Turnout didn’t necessarily affect how candidates performed, though. While Ward 1’s high turnout precincts represented Horhn’s largest wins, he also received more votes than Lumumba in all but two precincts across the city.

In the April 22 runoff, most voters will cast a Democratic ballot, choosing between Lumumba and Horhn. Residents in Wards 6 and 7 have a Democratic primary runoff for their representative on the City Council. There’s also a Republican primary runoff for mayor between Wilfred Beal and Kenneth Gee. Mississippi has open primaries, meaning voters do not register with a political party and may vote in any party primary they choose. However, those who voted in the April 1 primary are not legally allowed to vote in the opposite party’s runoff. Anyone who did not participate in the primary may vote in either runoff race. Voters may also select any candidate in the General Election in June regardless of the primary they voted in.

One Voice, with offices located on Jackson State University’s campus, is another group doing voter outreach work in Mississippi. Catherine Robinson is the program director of the nonprofit organization based in the capital city. She said one reason why voter turnout is low is because residents feel unheard.

“One of the things that we hear a lot is that they’re not going to change anything. It’s gonna stay the same. So why should I vote? Why should I vote?” Robinson said. “We try to educate them on that systematically. Change does not occur just by complaining. In order for us to have this change, it’s a democracy, and without democracy, we’re ineffective.”

One Voice has been holding voter registration drives and distributing educational materials to inform people of their rights and what’s on their ballots.

“We understand that there’s a gap in understanding how these local elections or national elections impact their everyday lives,” she said. “ One thing that we try to do here at One Voice is close that gap by making sure that we are creating relatable materials for people to understand the complex policies in a simpler form.”

Schoenhofer said that it’s key to vote in every election, especially the smaller ones, in order to see the change desired in Jackson, such as improving clean water access and infrastructure woes.

“Those are things that happen because of your local elections, your city council, your mayor, and the mayor, who appoints department heads,” she said. “So that’s where you can really see the results, and that’s where you really need to express your opinion.”

When it comes to the upcoming election, she encourages voters to do their research, not just for the April 22 runoff but beyond.

“Study these candidates, these people who are willing to put themselves forward,” she said. “Study their ideas and choose who you think is best, and once you’ve done that, tune in once in a while to the online livestream of the city council meetings, because it doesn’t just stop on election day.”

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