Political Awareness and Involvement

Just six weeks after founding Delta Sigma Theta, the young Howard University students marched in the historic Suffragist March as the Sorority's first public act. More than 100 years later, the Tempe Alumnae Chapter continues the legacy of civic engagement and fighting for issues important to our communities. Here you can find resources on the three advocacy issues we are focusing on this year.

After seeing the numbers for African Americans in Arizona, we committed to making the national partnership a local priority. Of the 188,000 eligible African American voters in Arizona, only 91,000 are registered voters. In the last 3 presidential elections, an average of 25,000 African Americans actually voted and in the last 3 mid-term elections, only an average of 15,000 showed up to the polls. With these numbers, the African American community could be a deciding factor in any statewide election so we are encouraging everyone to register and VOTE!

We encourage all voters to vote early by getting on the PEVL (Permanent Early Voting List). This way your ballot for every election you are eligible for will be automatically mailed to you. Be sure to get those ballots in the mail at least a week before the election to make sure they arrive on time or you can drop your ballot envelope off at a vote location. Click the button below for more information.

The principal reason for the Census is to determine how many members of the House of Representatives each state will receive for the next decade (called reapportionment). Each state’s number of Representatives plus their two Senators equals the state’s Electoral College used to elect the President. Additionally, most states use Census numbers to draw their state and local electoral district lines through a process called redistricting. Census data is also used to distribute over $700 Billion in federal funds to states for roads, bridges, Title 1 School Funding,

Medicaid, Medicare, SNAP benefits, and more. Federal funding to states for hundreds of programs is directly linked to the decennial Census count. If our communities do not complete the decennial Census, our communities will be underfunded and underrepresented for the ensuing 10 years.

Census Day is April 1, 2020. Every residential unit in the United States will receive correspondence in March of 2020 with instructions on how to complete the Census. Residents of the country have until the end of July to complete the form, online, by phone, by mail, or with a census taker. The Bureau will then compile the data and submit it to the President by December 31, 2020 and by March 31, 2021 to the states for the purposes of redistricting and reapportionment.