No, We Can't: Inside a Pro-Choice Watch Party as Amendment 4 Fails

It's just after 8 p.m. on election night when New Times arrives at the Florida Women's Freedom Coalition's watch party at Ball & Chain in Little Havana.

Polls have closed in South Florida and the results are starting to roll in.

There is one particular ballot question on everyone's minds at this party: Amendment 4, the "Right to Abortion" initiative, which would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. All over the bar are stickers, buttons, and T-shirts in support of the "Yes on 4" campaign to protect the right to abortion in the Sunshine State.
Former University of Miami president and U.S. Rep. Donna Shalala is in attendance, fielding questions from the media. But most onlookers clad in their "Yes on 4" and "Harris for President" T-shirts look tense. So are the members of Men4Choice, a nonprofit group that helps activate, educate, and mobilize men as partners and allies to advocate for abortion rights.

Some guests are seated in booths, glued to computer and phone screens as the vote tally progresses and servers pass mini Cuban sandwiches, tostones, and other finger foods. Others mingle at the bar, ordering drinks. Another group huddles around the two flatscreen TV monitors broadcasting MSNBC near the entrance.

On stage, a DJ spins tunes in front of a banner that reads, "Our Lives, Miami Rally for Reproductive Freedom." Many of the song choices don't fit the mood, given the nervous atmosphere, which appears to fit what seems to have become the term of the day among liberal-leaning Americans: nauseously optimistic. Hardly anyone here appears to be in the mood to dance to Marc Anthony or a remix of "Suavemente."
By 8:40 p.m., when the party should be getting going, more than 85 percent of Florida ballots have been tallied, and Amendment 4 sits at 57 percent support — three points shy of the supermajority required for it to pass.

No one is smiling. Eyes remain resolutely glued to screens.

A man named Nico, who worked as a canvasser in Miami-Dade County in support of the abortion initiative, tells New Times he's proud of the work he and his fellow canvassers put in to spread the word.

"You can see a lot of the people wanted to know about the issue and cared about the issue deeply," he says. "I think overall that stands out the most. If anything, if the result doesn't go the way we thought it would, we know that we went out there and fought disinformation and we let a lot of people know what is really at stake here in Florida.

"We can live with defeat because it's democracy, and that's what we have to live with."

Ten minutes later, the inevitable is sinking in. Partygoers are beginning to clear out. No one has told the DJ, though — he's playing "My Humps" by the Black Eyed Peas.

He ought to be spinning "sad drinking music," a bystander notes.

It's a little past 9 p.m., and people are officially sad. The amendment did not pass. Tears are shed, embraces commence and are prolonged.

Still, the music plays on, sounding increasingly louder as the bar continues to empty out.

Dan, a former fellow with Men4Choice, confesses he's heartbroken.

"I'm very disappointed with the results, of course," he tells New Times. "I was talking to someone here tonight and they said in any other context, this would have been a landslide: 43 to 57 — that's a huge win, right? But because of the way our initiative law works here in Florida, we lost.

"We need to organize, because it wasn't just us that lost on this. Amendment 3 [to legalize recreational marijuana] also lost, and I think there was even more funding, more energy, and more support behind that. So I think it's clear that 60 percent threshold is not representative of what the opinion is on the ground."

Word went around that those who remained at the bar should gather around the stage for speeches. But no one took the stage. By 10:05 p.m., the staff was clearing the tables. All that remained was to turn off the lights.

And the music.