Hi, everyone.
Over the weekend, streets across the country were rumbling with Trump-bedazzled caravans. In New Jersey, a group even blocked the Garden State Parkway, something that would anger those same people if traffic stopped for BLM protesters.
Meanwhile, Democrats are working at phone/textbanks, talking, and listening, to actual voters. If you are able to spare a hour here or there, potential voters need your encouragement. Here are links on how to connect to the phone and textbanks that are happening everyday from now through Nov. 3rd: https://indivisibleventura.org/what-can-i-do-now/ and tinyurl.com/Antiracist-events-Ventura.
During our college voter registration events these last few years, we did a lot of listening. We heard from young people for whom potential debt, not aptitude, would determine the limit of their educational aspirations, and from those who were facing leaving their families behind to have any chance to rent an apartment.
In return, they listened in disbelief that we older people came from a time without long lines at financial aid offices, a time when community colleges and state colleges were free or almost so. A time when housing was relatively inexpensive and plentiful. A time when we valued the potential of our young people. A time that might as well have been Narnia, when compared to the issues these young people face.
We talked about the factors that created their current reality, especially the cataclysmic election of 1978. That was the year Proposition 13 changed everything – incentivizing local governments to approve commercial real estate over residential developments and cutting local funding to education and city services. https://capitalandmain.com/taxpayers-remorse-the-life-and-times-of-proposition-13-0729https://www.kqed.org/news/11700683/too-few-homes-is-proposition-13-to-blame-for-californias-housing-shortage
We asked these young voters to vote – to make their voices, and their needs heard, and we promised to vote for their interests as well. This isn’t the way the world always was. It can change again.
If you have young, or first-time voters in your social circle – please reach out and ask what is important to them. The pandemic has scrambled everything, but ask about their transition plans to independence. What are their challenges? How do public policies help or hurt them? What would they change?
In our “Friends and Family Voting Toolkit, we include a section to help people visualize and advocate for their needs. https://indivisibleventura.org/2020/10/26/friends-and-family-voting-toolkit-beyond-phone-textbanking/ Walking them through long ballots is really helpful too. Open up our voting guide (tinyurl.com/Ventura-2020-Guide) and go through it, page by page, along with the assurance that they can leave parts blank, and that even progressive people can disagree on propositions, due to the way they’re written. Confidence in voting is a learned skill. Be a teacher.
For right after the polls close, we’re asking people to alert their contacts in counties and states that use voting machines to volunteer to photograph poll tapes. Trump will assuredly declare loudly that results that swing against him are corrupt in some way, but history proves that it’s the GOP, in conjunction with machinery and software, who have actually stolen elections. For those of us for whom this whole topic is new, it’s explained here, along with how we can help with poll tape analysis. https://indivisibleventura.org/2020/10/31/what-the-heck-is-a-poll-tape-and-why-is-it-so-important/
We’ve also added an post on how to keep calm through the days of the elections and afterwards, when results can change due to later ballots. We will not be bullied to abrogate our state’s rights to complete our count to suit him and other states will stand up too. Trump is NOT in charge of the election, no matter what he thinks. As that iconic car insurance commercial says “That’s not how ANY of this works.” https://indivisibleventura.org/2020/10/30/fri-10-30-note-to-self-trump-is-not-in-charge-of-this-election/
Keep your calendars marked with “Events happening tomorrow” https://indivisibleventura.org/events-having-tomorrow/and “Events happening soon” https://indivisibleventura.org/events-happening-soon/
There is an anonymous quote “If your voice held no power, they wouldn’t try to silence you.” These GOP caravans are an attempt to cow us, to silence us.
Not working. Sign into an voter outreach program and listen…and help to create a lifelong voter.
Adriene
Co-Director
Indivisible Ventura
indivisibleventura@gmail.com
