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Established in 1970
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3
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‘City
of
Roses’
Volume XLVIV • Number 22
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • October 21, 2020
Committed to Cultural Diversity
A Hero for Community Health
Lessie Williams
honored for helping
families most at risk
A long-time champion for community health
from Portland’s African American community has
been honored as a national hero for her work tack-
ling racial disparities in healthcare for families
most at risk.
Lessie Williams is the first recipient of the
REACH (Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Com-
munity Health) Lark Galloway-Gilliam Award for
Advancing Health Equity from the Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Prevention, one of the major op-
erating components of the U.S. Dept. of Health and
Human Services.
Through her church’s non-profit organization,
Highland Haven, Williams is credited with creat-
ing youth violence prevention programs, expanding
access to culturally-relevant mental health services
and launching culturally tailored health programs
to improve health behaviors such as healthy eating,
physical activity and tobacco cessation.
Recently retired as executive director of High-
land Haven, where she spent 20 years building up
and believing in the young people she serves and
working alongside Pastor W.G. Hardy, who passed
away in 2018.
Williams is also credited with organizing a net-
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Lessie Williams has been honed as a community hero by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention for tackling racial disparities in health.
Ballots Returned at a Record Pace
Presidential
turnout could be
highest since 1908
In Oregon, ballots must be returned by 8 p.m.
Election Day, Nov. 3. Postmarks do not count.
Ballots for the 2020 election start-
ed arriving in mailboxes of Oregon
voters last week, and so far more
than 88,000 people have casted their
vote at a record pace, following suit
with the nationwide early voting
trends.
By comparison, at this time
during the 2016 presidential elec-
tion, 12,591 ballots were returned
in Oregon. In 2012 it was less than
10,000.
The Elections Division of the Or-
egon Secretary of State released the
unofficial ballot returns count Mon-
day.
Nearly 3 million people are reg-
istered to vote in Oregon, a 15%
increase from the 2016 election. A
portion of the influx of registered
voters in the state can be attribut-
ed to Oregon’s Motor Voter Act in
2016, which made voter registration
automatic when Oregonians obtain
or renew their driver’s licenses.
To no surprise, the county with
the most ballots returned thus far
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