By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
When Nicole Alston-Abel looks at a stack of blank postcards, she sees more than paper. She sees a connection to her family’s history and an opportunity to encourage thousands of people across the country to vote.
Alston-Abel, vice president of the Seattle Chapter of Jack and Jill of America, Inc., is helping organize an Oct. 17 community postcard-writing drive in Kent with a goal of sending 5,000 handwritten messages encouraging registered, infrequent voters in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas to vote.
For Alston-Abel, the effort is deeply personal.
“I am a child of someone who was on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday,” said Alston-Abel. “My father was on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday. The very idea that the things that he was bitten by dogs for are being systematically deconstructed is appalling to me. That is the anchor that is rooting me in this.”
That history shapes how Alston-Abel views current debates over voting access, particularly in states where members of her own family live.
“Slavery hasn’t changed, but the mechanism—they just call it something different. This is James Crow, Esquire,” said Alston-Abel. “My family in North Carolina is impacted by gerrymandering. My mom is 89 years old. Why does she have to request a ballot every single time… and then have that ballot notarized in order to vote? They don’t want her to vote. And that’s wrong.”
Alston-Abel said Washington’s vote-by-mail system shouldn’t keep residents here from paying attention to the voting experiences of people in other states.
The chapter plans to send 1,000 of its 5,000 postcards to registered, infrequent voters in Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District, with the remaining cards going to voters in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas. Alston-Abel said the outreach is focused on districts with significant Black populations and historically low voter turnout. She said increased participation in those communities could influence key races in the upcoming midterm elections and, collectively, the balance of power in Congress.
The chapter is working with voter outreach initiatives including Postcards to Swing States and collaborating locally with organizations including the Urban League, National Council of Negro Women, Divine Nine Greek-letter organizations, League of Women Voters and local senior centers.
The handwritten cards carry a simple message: “Thank you for being a voter. Who you vote for is private, but whether you vote is public record.”
Alston-Abel said the campaign is intended to encourage people who might otherwise sit out an election to vote.
“The reason we are where we are as a country is because people decided to stay home,” said Alston-Abel. “The people who are orchestrating the destruction of the Voting Rights Act are counting on the fact that Black folks won’t get out and vote. They only win if we don’t fight.”
The campaign also reflects the civic tradition of Jack and Jill of America, which was founded in January 1938 in Philadelphia by Marion Stubbs Thomas and 20 other African American mothers. The organization began as a way to provide social, cultural and educational opportunities for Black children at a time when segregation excluded Black families from many mainstream social and recreational spaces.
The Seattle Chapter was established in 1958 by 22 local mothers as the organization’s 98th chapter. Its programs serve families and young people across King and Snohomish counties, with an emphasis on leadership, cultural enrichment, community service and civic engagement.
For Alston-Abel, the connection between that history and the postcard campaign is also playing out within her own family. Her 15-year-old daughter, Claire Abel, is helping mobilize another generation.
Claire, a student at Raisbeck Aviation High School and a member of her school’s Black Student Union, is encouraging other young people to participate in the postcard effort. She is also creating the playlist for the chapter’s organizing sessions.
“I don’t want my rights to ever be in jeopardy as a young person growing up in America,” said Claire. “It’s like what Sheryl Lee Ralph said: Just because I have rights today, it doesn’t mean I’ll have rights tomorrow. And I do want to have my rights tomorrow, so this is really important to me.”
Claire also sees the campaign as part of a larger responsibility for her generation.
“I think I would like to be a revolutionary, but not in the way that people think,” said Claire. “I think that more people are trying to pit us against each other than we actually are. My solution is we come together and just battle this as a collective, because we’re stronger together than we are apart.”
The chapter’s goal of writing and mailing 5,000 postcards comes with a significant logistical and financial challenge. During its 2024 presidential election drive, organizers say the chapter completed 4,500 cards before running out of postage. This year, the chapter is asking community members to help it reach the 5,000-card goal by contributing postcard stamps, helping with postage costs or lending their time to write and address cards.
Organizers estimate postage for the campaign will cost about $3,000.
Community members can participate in the Seattle Chapter’s Community Postcard Writing Drive on Saturday, Oct. 17, at New Beginnings Christian Fellowship in Kent. Organizers are inviting young people, elders, local organizations and other community members to help write messages to voters before the postcards are mailed by the Oct. 21 deadline.
“Come on out, bring postcard stamps with you, and help us write these postcards,” said Alston-Abel. “Just because we’re here in Washington and we have the luxury of voting by mail doesn’t mean that other people do… Every card that we write and every voter that we reach is one step closer to getting us to the place where we want to be.”
