Religious leaders from a variety of faiths each spoke on their commitment to nonviolent resistance and communal democracy during Wednesday’s “Count All Votes” rally outside San Jose City Hall.
“As a gay person, I stand knowing that my rights and my freedom rests not on the whims of our leaders but on the power of our votes,” Rev. Bryan James Franzen said during the vigil that started right before the rally.
Other religious speakers echoed Franzen and called for all votes to be counted and political leaders to respect a peaceful transition of power once the results were announced.
Scott Myers-Lipton, a San Jose State sociology professor on leave, teamed with the Silicon Valley Faith Leaders Collaborative to host the rally which was an all-day event. About 150 people attended this part of the event, which hosted a news conference and police de-escalation training workshops earlier in the day.
Silicon Valley Faith Leaders Collaborative is a group of religious leaders from different denominations who address racist American heritage and white privilege.
“We believe that every vote has to be counted, we believe that there is a democratic process that we support and that's what we are advocating for,” said Rabbi Dana Magat, a member of the Silicon Valley Faith Leaders Collaborative.
Rev. Nancy Palmer Jones, a senior minister at the First Unitarian Church of San Jose, said organizers were determined to keep the event peaceful as members wore bright yellow vests to mark them as non-violent ambassadors, which is a way to deter policing at the event.
“Many of us are pushing to reimagine public safety,” Palmer Jones said. “Now we are actually doing that by becoming community public-safety servants to show that we can do this ourselves and nobody gets hurt.”
Rabbi Magat said during the vigil that he hopes for a peaceful transition of power after the presidential election.
“We stand today for democracy and election integrity and we ensure that all of our fellow citizens have a peaceful path of self expression,” he said.
Myers-Lipton said while the electorate would meet and cast its vote for the next U.S. president, a peaceful transition of power based on all votes is not a matter of party preference, but a matter of American democracy.
“We know it's going to be a struggle,” Myers-Lipton said. “We know that anything is possible right now with the administration, so people who believe in democracy need to be involved with this movement.”
Campbell resident Susan Karlins said she and her husband found out about the event through Facebook and decided to attend because they are concerned that President Donald Trump will refuse to count every vote cast.
“It's so important that we value democracy,” Karlins said. “It's the essence of this country and if we can’t count every vote then you don't have a democracy.”
