How Miami-Dade houses of worship are boosting voter registration

Miami-Dade County admin September 17, 2026 0 Comments

How Miami-Dade houses of worship are boosting voter registration

For decades, Black churches have encouraged residents to vote early in local and statewide elections through a familiar rhyming initiative: ‘Souls to the Polls.’ But this year, one politically engaged interfaith group is partnering with local groups to give that tradition a bit of a twist.

Kicking off Thursday morning at Barry University, “Souls to the Voter Rolls” is a series of events held at houses of worship across Miami-Dade County to help achieve one goal: Ensure as many people are able to vote as possible.

“We believe that it’s very important for everyone to participate in the democratic process and to exercise their rights,” said Rev. Tawnica Ferguson Rowan from Universal Truth Center for Better Living, one of the churches participating in the events this weekend.

Following Barry’s event, more than a dozen congregations across Miami-Dade are opening their doors this weekend to check voters’ registration status, help voters make updates to their registration, inform them on acceptable forms of ID and provide information about Miami-Dade voting and elections.

The 14 participating houses of worship span from Miami Shores to Perrine and include a variety of denominations including Episcopal churches, United Methodist churches, one mosque and a handful of other Christian churches.

The members of the participating churches belong to interfaith nonprofit People Acting for Community Together, or PACT, a group representing more than 50,000 people and that seeks to tackle Miami-Dade County’s most pressing social issues through civic action. Earlier this year, PACT was able to secure public commitments from county leaders to advance long-delayed mental health services and overhaul how the county defines and incentivizes affordable housing.

READ MORE: ‘Let Justice Roll!’ How a group of many faiths takes on Miami’s big social problems

‘Ducks in a row’

The ‘Souls to the Voter Rolls’ initiative aligns well with the Universal Truth Center’s mission, Ferguson Rowan said. The church, which describes itself as a “Bible-based New Thought Christian church” in Miami Gardens aims to “empower people to develop their potential by awakening their divine nature… and remind people that they have untapped power and then to help use it,” Ferguson Rowan said.

Plus, some members, including their eldest member who is celebrating her 100th birthday this Sunday, have already inquired about election season.

“There have been people who have asked me in the past questions about voting and wanting to make sure that all of their ducks are in a row,” Ferguson Rowan said. “And so this is just the perfect way for them to talk to the right people.”

Members of the Universal Truth Center have participated in ‘Souls to the Polls’ events in the past to help usher people to the polls and inform people about elections during early voting, but this initiative is an important first step before any of that work can happen, Ferguson Rowan said.

“Before you can get to the polls, you’ve got to make sure that people are on the rolls,” the pastor said. “This allows us to do it in a more formal way even before we get to the polls, and I’m excited about that.”

Engaging young voters

The partnership between PACT and Barry University allows for the organizations to tackle a wider demographic of people, including college students who are an under-registered and under-represented segment of voters, said Madeline Maynard, the integral ecology coordinator at Barry.

Maynard said first time voters might be feeling “overwhelmed” or “discouraged” about politics to the point where they could use some in-person help getting and staying informed about elections. That’s where ‘Soul to the Voter Rolls’ comes in.

“In general, young people are a little bit disengaged with our democratic process at this point,” Maynard said. “It’s been, for lack of a better term, an exhausting past few election cycles.”

The event at Barry will be held in the Thompson Building, the student hub on campus, and will attract students with games, prizes and food which, “always helps college students get engaged” Maynard said.

The voter registration events this weekend will include organizers from Engage Miami, a nonprofit that focuses on getting Miami’s young population civically engaged, to help check voter status and register people on the spot.

Engage workers are “certified and able to register voters themselves,” said Maynard. “So that just takes one piece of the legwork out, which is always good for college students — reducing that friction,” Maynard said.

Organizers will also help people make sense of a new Florida law that places voters who haven’t voted in recent elections under an “inactive status” sometimes deterring people from showing up to vote even though they are technically still eligible.

“Right now, if you check your registration and it says it’s inactive, some people might take that to mean, “Oh, I’m not registered, and they can’t vote. But that just means they didn’t vote in the last election,” Maynard said.

This story was produced with financial support from Trish and Dan Bell and donors in South Florida’s Jewish and Muslim communities, including Khalid and Diana Mirza and the Mohsin and Fauzia Jaffer Foundation, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.