NEW YORK, USA — With only one day before the United States (US) midterm elections, Jamaicans across the country are being urged to go out and vote. The message has come from leaders of the Global Jamaica Diaspora Council as well as other influential members of the Jamaican community here.

Dr Karren Dunkley, head of the council in the north-east US, said the move to have as many Jamaicans participate in the election process “follows a series of public awareness forums at which the issues impacting voters and their communities were discussed”.

She said that “meetings were also held with candidates from both sides of the political divide to get their perspectives on the issues that are of concern to our people.

Dr Dunkley said the economy, immigration, inflation, the right to vote, and abortion are among the issues which have attracted the concern among the Jamaican voters in her jurisdiction, which includes New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, and Massachusetts among other north-eastern states.

In urging Jamaicans to vote in the elections on Tuesday, November 8, Dunkley noted that it is imperative that they do so for more than one reason. “It is crucial that we have a voice at the table so we can help influence decisions and policies that are of interest to us,” she argued.

Dunkley’s counterpart in the southern United States Dr Allan Cunningham said he has “resorted to various social media platforms in his effort to urge Jamaicans to go out and vote”.

Cunningham, who has Diaspora responsibilities for the southern states of Florida, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Texas, among others, sought to stress the importance of the participation of Jamaicans in the electoral process, pointing out that, “Elections are important and they do have consequences.”

His message to get Jamaicans to go to the polls could be helpful, even crucial in one Florida Congressional District, where Jamaican-born Dr Karen Green is vying to become the first Jamaican to be elected to the US Congress from that state.

Green, who is deputy head of the Florida Democratic Party, won her party’s nomination in August to contest the seat.

The district includes Semiole county and much of northern Orange county, both in central Florida.

Another long-time Diaspora advocate Sadie Campbell, president of the Jamaica Progressive League (JPL), said her organisation “is also engaged in urging Jamaicans and other Caribbean nationals to go out and vote. We have interacted with several candidates to get the best understanding on where they stand on the issues that are important to our people”, she said in an interview.

In Maryland, Rick Nugent, who heads the Jamaican Association of Maryland, said it was “important for Jamaicans in the state to vote not only because it is your constitutional right and duty as a citizen, but also because of the fact that Wes Moore, the democratic nominee for governor, has a huge Jamaican connection”.

Moore’s mother, Joy Moore, was born in Westmoreland. With polls showing him with a large lead over his Republican opponent Dan Cox, Moore is on the cusp of creating history by becoming the first African American to be elected governor of Maryland and possibly the only one in the entire United States after Tuesday’s elections.

Chauna Chin, the Global Jamaica Diaspora representative for the US west mid-west said she, too, has been encouraging Jamaicans in the region “to ensure you participate in the electoral process by voting on Tuesday”.

Retired adjunct Professor Raymond Rhoden, meanwhile, has one simple message to Jamaicans across the US. “Those of you who are eligible to vote please, please go out and vote,” he said as he noted that, “We are at a stage in this country where our democracy is at stake.”

Dr Rupert Francis of the Jamaican Men of Florida, a non-profit body, has joined other Diaspora leaders in urging and encouraging Jamaicans across the US to vote. “To do so – vote – is our civic duty and we should exercise that duty,” he said.

Many Jamaicans, meantime, have either voted already or are planning to do so.

New York, Long Island-based Peter McKenzie, a former corrections officer with the Department of Correctional Services in Jamaica, said he “will definitely be voting on Tuesday”.

“I take this matter of voting seriously,” he told the Jamaica Observer during an interview. Meanwhile, former member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force Dwight P Bailey says he has already voted as he did not want to miss the opportunity to do since he would be travelling before election day.

Peter Lindo, a bus operator with the Nassau county public transportation system in New York, who had originally planned not to vote, has had a change of heart and “will definitely be voting”, he said, while Connecticut-based Ferris McLean-Ewards said she was still undecided if she will be voting come election day.