The Everett Haitian Community Center (EHCC), in collaboration with the overall Haitian media outlets, association of churches, and social justice organizations, announces it will hold a Haitian-Americans Voter Education –Everett Election 2021 Mayoral, Council, and School Committee debate on Saturday, August 7, from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. in Everett.
This debate is geared specifically to educate Haitian voters.
This is a critical election race occurring in Everett for Mayor, City Council, and School Committee. The Haitian-American community in Everett is part of the largest immigrant voting community in Everett. This community has a voice. This community has unique needs and must be granted the opportunity to hear where the candidates stand on those issues.
Due to systemic inequities, communities of color’s voices and needs are too often ignored or lost in mainstream conversations. The Haitian community has been most vulnerable and affected by many facets of the issues, now exacerbated by COVID-19. Yet, the latest community surveys conducted indicated that many voters in our community still know barely anything of substance about most of the candidates running to represent them, nor their stances on issues that concern them the most.
“We believe that these voters too, must know where candidates stand on issues that matter to them,” said the EHCC.
It is critical and equitable to always organize a debate before preliminaries or general elections, they said. This debate is where candidates will directly engage each other at the same time on particular topics in front of the voters in our community. The debate is giving voters their rights to participate in a genuine democratic process.
The first hour will be the Mayoral Debate and the second hour, the City Council and School Committee Debate. We want to encourage voter participation by sponsoring this Candidate Debate.