Rallies in Warren, Youngstown urge early voting
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WARREN – The most direct methods for U.S. citizens to make their voices heard to their government comes through protest (1st amendment) and voting (15th amendment).
Saturday's No Kings: Vote Early rally at Courthouse Square balanced both during one of more than 3,000 similar nonpartisan demonstrations nationwide, including one in downtown Youngstown that also drew hundreds.
“The goal is to encourage citizens to vote early and to protect our elections," said Dr. Laura Liberman of Warren, one of Good Trouble Trumbull's organizers, which hosted the event.
“Voting early has lots of advantages. First, you beat the long lines. Second, if life gets in the way or you have glitches with paperwork, you have a built-in safety net to make sure your voice is heard. Third, there have been concerns about Election Day voter intimidation such as ICE at the polls and you can avoid that by voting early. Finally, a practical benefit: campaigns update their voter lists, so casting your ballot early may spare you reminder calls and texts."
She pointed out that since Ohio has started its early voting process, the Warren rally was meant to "build community, help folks make a voting plan, give them info to vote early, ask them to remind friends to vote early and invite them to a vote early celebration next week."
With signs encouraging voting, others held signs that stayed consistent to No Kings' original 2025 intentions.
“No Kings is a coalition of civil rights, labor, and grassroots groups (including Indivisible, MoveOn, 50501, ACLU, AFT and others) to express that, in America, we the people choose our leaders. We have no kings," Liberman said.
She added, "At the first three No Kings days of action, millions protested about issues including affordability (gas, housing, groceries, healthcare), tariffs, war, violence by masked ICE agents, data centers and the power of billionaires."
Dr. Janet Shiley of Cortland brought her painting that depicted multiple headstones; many of them had health-related programs that have been eliminated since the new administration took office while a few others had titles of ones that could be targeted next year.
"What is on here are things that are already a done deal and the dates. The changes to Medicaid, the changes to the work programs, the changes to the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) are all done deals. They’re going to happen on Jan. 1, and no new Congress can affect that. What we can affect are potential changes to Social Security and changes to the democracy. We are no longer in WHO. We’re no longer in USAID. They’re gone.
"People that are on SNAP, people that are getting Meals on Wheels, people that are existing on some subsidies are going to have a cold reckoning come January 1. What I’m trying to depict here is, they conveniently have it so people don’t feel that pain until after the election. We can’t stop it. We can only affect some of these things that aren’t dead yet."
Offering a counterpoint to the more than 200 protestors who attended, a man roamed back and forth along the sidewalk with a homemade sign - a torn piece of cardboard inscribed with "Trump Is King" - in a manner that seemed to be like an agitator attempting to stir up trouble for the enjoyment of it.
No Kings volunteer security followed him, even when he ran to escape their escort. Their presence aimed to make sure that no one at Courthouse Square encountered or got involved in any confrontations.
Among those who made sure to keep the peace was another Good Trouble Trumbull organizer, Eric Varga of Warren.
"Make sure that you check your voter registration," he said, "that you make sure everything is right and vote early because this year there are all sorts of concerns and legislation, even pending, that may alter the way that we generally voted in the past. People may not be aware of that. Slight discrepancies in your identification may be called into question when you attempt to vote."
Showing that the next generation wants to be involved in America's future, Warren G. Harding students Elizabeth Kopp and James McHan held signs that promoted voting at the rally. Both encourage others to vote via social media and discussions with family and friends.
Two months away from legally being allowed to vote, Kopp still attended No Kings: Vote Early because of her view that voting is important. "I just want to get the word out for people who, like me, who can’t vote to tell people who can vote that they need to, especially young voters."
She nodded to McHan, who qualified and voted already, as "her voice."
Holding a sign that depicted a To Do List of "VOTE VOTE VOTE," McHan, said, "I’m striving for a change. The more people who are educated, the more people who see that we actually do want change, I think the more people will be involved. The more people who are involved, the more things actually happen. A lot of people have problems that they don’t realize are rooted in these types of things. So, they don’t involve themselves with politics or government. You can’t have problems fixed if you don’t try to actually fix them.
"I definitely want to change the public view about it and make sure people realize that voting does matter as much as it seems like it doesn't nowadays."