Faith leaders rally in Lewiston to defend voting rights ahead of November election

Faith leaders, community organizers and elected officials gathered in Lewiston Wednesday to defend voting rights and push back against voter intimidation as part of a nationwide bus tour encouraging Americans to participate in the November election.

“The vote is sacred, and voting is more than just a civic duty,” said Rev. Dr. Allen Ewing-Merrill, executive director of the BTS Center in Portland. “It’s an expression of our hopes, our values, our commitment to one another.”

The rally in Kennedy Park was part of Interfaith Alliance’s 9,000-mile “The Vote Is Sacred” bus tour, which is traveling through 15 states to mobilize voters and bring together people of different faiths. The Lewiston event was organized in partnership with Multifaith Justice Maine (which, like Beacon, is a project of Maine People’s Alliance) and the Maine Council of Churches.

Speakers condemned efforts to suppress votes through intimidation, misinformation and barriers to the ballot box, including threats to use federal immigration enforcement to discourage participation.

“We say no to threats to deploy ICE to intimidate,” Ewing-Merrill said. “We say no to every form of election interference.”

Rep. Mana Abdi (D-Lewiston) connected the fight for voting rights to the economic challenges facing Mainers, from rising grocery bills to the cost of heating their homes.

“These are not abstract political issues,” Abdi said. “These are the everyday realities of people in our communities, the people we love, our neighbors, our friends — that is why our democracy matters.”

Abdi said that faith should bring communities together rather than divide them, and that political power should not be reserved for the wealthy and influential.

“Our democracy should never belong to those with wealth, power, or influence,” she said. “Our democracy belongs to all of us, and protecting it is a responsibility we all share.”

Rev. Dr. Jodi Cohen Hayashida of Multifaith Justice Maine also emphasized the importance of solidarity across religious differences, saying that people of faith don’t need to share the same beliefs or political views to defend one another’s rights.

“We don’t worship in the same ways, and we don’t always vote the same way,” Hayashida said. “But our differences don’t frighten us; they delight us.”