A Personal Note
By Aquiles Damiron-Alcantara, ULS Principal and Executive Presence Coach
In 2012, as a community organizer in Allentown, Pennsylvania, I spent afternoons leading voter registration drives. One summer day, I met a 71-year-old Black man on his porch. After our conversation, I had the privilege of registering him to vote for the first time in his life. That November, during our get-out-the-vote efforts, he proudly told me he had cast his ballot.
In 2014, while leading the training program for Wendy Davis's campaign in Texas, I witnessed the impact of restrictive voting laws. On Election Day, I sat in the Rio Grande Valley Boiler Room. We received calls from voters who had shown up to vote at their assigned school, only to find it empty and under construction. The county had changed the polling location but failed to update their website. Many voters, who had taken time off work to vote during lunch, likely gave up, unable to find the correct location in time.
In 2018, I organized a trip to Georgia to support Stacey Abrams' campaign. Despite Brian Kemp's office putting over 50,000 voter registrations on hold, mostly affecting Black voters, I remember the determination in people's voices as I knocked on doors: "We are voting. No one is going to take my vote away."
Facilitating a leadership development training for volunteer leaders, Chicago (2015)
These experiences have shown me both the challenges of voter suppression and the power of organized action. At Unlearning Solutions, we believe that reaching new heights requires letting go of outdated approaches. It's precisely because of our belief in unlearning as a pathway to reimagining what's possible that we are excited to support the leaders of the Election Protection Program.
We want to guide these leaders through a process of reflection: looking at where they've been, recognizing what has served them well thus far, and identifying what's no longer effective. Through this process of unlearning, they can begin to reimagine a new future for voter protection and access.
This project would blend our expertise in guiding leaders through transformative unlearning with our personal commitment to inclusive electoral systems. As immigrants who've become leaders in this country, Rajna and I understand the importance of giving voice to all and the need to constantly evolve our approaches.