Lakiesha “Stoney” Smith wants people to vote and understand the importance of voting — especially people who have been impacted by the criminal legal system. 

Smith, who was formerly incarcerated herself, is the community outreach specialist for Project Lift, a social justice organization that focuses on helping Black men with counseling and life skills programs along with other support and resources. 

Since the beginning of August, Smith has hosted an event every Thursday evening as part of her voter education tour. The events are held at a different Black-owned business each week to also promote local businesses, Smith said. 

She has helped 214 people register to vote so far this year. This Thursday, Smith will be at the Historic Greater Friendship Church between East Cleveland and the Glenville neighborhood, with more tour dates planned through September and possibly into October. 

Since the 2008 election, when former president Barack Obama first ran, Smith would get a packet of voter registration forms from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections every four years and go out into the community to register people. It was a less formal way of doing the work, but she has always had community connections, she said. 

With the help and mentorship of her boss at Project Lift, CEO LaToya Logan, Smith was able to formalize the voter tour and have a greater impact on the community, she said. 

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The power of community

On Aug. 29, Smith set up tables in an empty room next to Comma Club, a Black-owned clothing store in Euclid. A DJ played music as people settled in.  

Smith said it’s important for people to come together and have conversations about the power of voting. She has often heard from formerly incarcerated people that they didn’t know they could vote. Ohioans who have felony convictions can vote as long as they are not currently serving a sentence in jail or prison. 

People also often say voting doesn’t matter, Smith said. 

“So many people just don’t vote,” she said. “They don’t think their vote counts.”

For Smith, the voter education tour is a way to tell people that it’s not just about voting. It’s about the power of coming together as a community and pushing for change, she said. 

“I want to remind them, believe in yourself … you matter,” Smith said. “Your voice matters.”

The day before the Comma Club event, Smith added an unplanned stop to her tour. She spent Wednesday night at Oriana House, a community corrections and reentry center, where 75 people registered to vote.

Holding elected officials accountable

At Comma Club, the people who attended the event were already registered. The conversation turned to how they could do their part in encouraging family and friends to vote and how to find information, especially about local elections, so that they’re not leaving parts of their ballot blank. 

Kenneth DeFrance “Devo” Griffin spent 33 years in prison. On Aug. 29, he’d been out for 36 days. Sitting next to Smith, he said he didn’t think voting was important until recently. 

“We must hold those people that we vote for accountable,” he said. “And see where our tax dollars are and things of that nature.” 

When Griffin was incarcerated at Grafton Correctional Institution, Fred Ward, state director of Building Freedom Ohio, an organization that works to restore rights for justice-impacted people, visited the prison and talked to a group of incarcerated men. Griffin remembers Ward telling them there is power in numbers. 

“That’s the whole reason I’m sitting in this room today,” Griffin said. “Because I believe we can make a difference if we show up in numbers.”