Cook: Their little corner of America

David Cook

Very few people vote at the Amnicola Highway polling place, there in the unheated garage of Fire Station 10, where five folding chairs sat empty for most of Tuesday and poll workers talked of voting days gone by the way front-porch men might remember - sentimentally, wistfully - the hottest days of yesteryear.

"The most we ever had was 42," said poll worker Samuel Goines Jr., sipping his coffee.

Around 10 a.m., the day's ninth voter walked in. Goines took this as a good sign.

"We're rolling today," he said.

The precinct, which stretches near Dodson Avenue and north toward Chattanooga State, consistently records some of the lowest turnout rates in Hamilton County.

• In the May election, 11 people voted out of 294 registered voters.

• In November 2012, 34 votes were cast out of 287 registered voters.

• In August 2012, only 24 people voted.

It wasn't always like this. In the 1994 election, more than 60 percent of folks voted. Ten years later, the turnout rate was 35 percent, still palatable in modern America.

But things changed. Politicians carved and recarved district lines. What was once steady no longer is: Folks talk of one street where odd-numbered houses vote in one place, and evens vote elsewhere.

Neighborhoods gave way to commercial businesses and 18-wheelers.

"Fifty-five years ago, all of this wasn't anything but cotton," said Goines. "Amnicola was just a dirt road. It was all farm."

A working population grew old, then older.

A young population got arrested, then disenfranchised as felons.

Poverty crept in, and so did disillusionment. It all feeds on itself, this Amnicola district a microcosm for whatever rickety democracy we face in 21st-century America.

"A lot of folks just don't care," said Goines.

But there are some who do.

I went to the Amnicola polling place Tuesday to find the reasons why people don't vote. And I found them.

But what I also discovered - walking up to me, extending his hand - was something rather magnificent: Samuel Goines and his family and friends.

They're the poll officials and volunteers for the Amnicola district. There among the rock-bottom turnout and empty voter chairs, they're holding down their little corner of America.

"I was raised we ought to appreciate our freedom enough to come out and express ourselves," said Martha Goines, Samuel's wife.

Martha is the poll officer of the Amnicola polling place, and has been since President Obama's first term. She carries the quiet yet matriarchal presence of strong women.

"It bothers me our people don't voice themselves," she said.

Next to her sat sister-in-law Linda Lindsey and daughter-in-law MarQuita Davis, who woke up Tuesday morning and immediately began posting online: vote, vote, vote.

"It's crazy how people think it doesn't make a difference," she said.

Next to her sat Jacenta McKibben, a cosmetology student at Chattanoga State. Or, at least, on most days.

"We're missing school today to get people to vote," she said.

Next to her was Tawanna Hill. She was organizing a carpool to help carry people to the polls.

"If you're in the area and need to go vote, we'll help," she said.

They're involved in community meetings; Samuel walks flyers door to door.

They're active in public schools; MarQuita can give example after example of how Hardy Elementary has helped her kids.

They're open-minded; Linda votes both Republican and Democrat. "Whoever's right at the right time," she said.

And when she encounters it, Martha tries to dismantle the defeating pessimism that keeps people away from the polls.

"I tell them their vote does count," she said.

In your little corner of America, you do too, Martha.

You do, too.

Contact David Cook at dcook@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6329. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter at DavidCookTFP.