Little Miss Marva Bean
My Uncle John is so smart! He really cares about what he believes in. I heard him tell the grown-ups at church that they need to vote. Afterward, my Auntie told him that maybe people weren’t registered to do so. He said he wasn’t speaking to those who weren’t registered to vote. He was talking to the ones who were.
My Uncle John said that the Cleveland ward turnout percentages from the Nov. 4, 2025, election were a disgrace to our ancestors who risked their lives back then to do what so many take for granted today: voting.
Befuddlement. Merriam-Webster says that this noun means the state of being confused, dazed or utterly bewildered. My Uncle John said that was his first reaction when he learned of our community’s turnout percentages from last November…
He got his information straight from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections website.
Check to see your ward’s turnout. www.boe.cuyahogacounty.gov/elections/GetElectionById/264
Since we’re learning to research in school, I had to check it out for myself. The numbers are crazy!
It seems that grown-ups aren’t taking this voting thing seriously. There’s a table from that website that breaks down the voter turnout by wards. It is a transparent snapshot that states the obvious. A lot of the registered grown-ups didn’t vote. Why? Don’t they know that each vote counts?
A Pew Research Center report published Dec. 4, 2024, found that 35% of nonvoting U.S. citizens said a major reason they did not vote was that they thought “their vote would not make a difference.”
My teacher said that during the Kennedy-Nixon election, Kennedy won the popular vote by 0.17 percentage points. That election shows that each vote counts, but choosing not to vote means your ballot will not be part of the count..
My Uncle John said that it makes sense to feel that one vote is small, but elections are made of individual votes, and many races, especially for school boards and city councils, are decided by very small margins.
To keep it close to home, in Cleveland’s 2025 Ward 12 council race, the certified results showed Tanmay Shah with 1,485 votes and Danny Kelly with 1,476 — a difference of just nine votes. One ballot becomes part of the larger total. My Uncle John said strong turnout sends officials a message that a community is paying attention.
So, if grown-ups aren’t sure who to vote for, Antioch Baptist Church’s Social Justice Ministry is organizing Road To the Polls, a series of voter-engagement events at Antioch and other locations. The ministry is partnering with Greater Cleveland Congregations on Fairfax canvassing.
Although they are nonpartisan and don’t tell people who to vote for, they encourage participation. People can learn why voting matters and about the candidates who are running, and they can help spread the word by canvassing the Fairfax neighborhood with friends of Olivet.
For more information on Road To the Polls, call Antioch Baptist Church at 216-421-1516.
My Uncle John said that voting is a gift that allows people to be a voice for the voiceless and put compassionate folks in government. It’s a way to help those who are less fortunate than others. It’s a way to help ourselves.
My Uncle John said he worries that if people fail to use it, people may lose it. Please don’t lose it before I get a chance to use it.
Little Miss Marva Bean is the precocious fourth-grade version of the managing editor, Marva White. She is committed to accurate editorial content with an emphasis on clear reporting, strong collaboration, and coverage that informs and serves readers.
