At last night’s POP meeting, we heard a great report from Darcy Long-Curtiss about the finalization of a space for individual homeless shelters in The Dalles, so that people have a warm and safe space during the cold months ahead. Thank you, Darcy, for your tireless efforts on behalf of those who have fallen on hard times. If folks would like to volunteer or help with some food, please contact Darcy at longcurtiss@gmail.com
We also heard from Sandy and Bob about the Election Protection viewing that is happening. All is going well. Volunteers have identified a few things of concern and our county clerk, Lisa Gambee, has responded very positively and has made every effort to have complete transparency in this process. Wasco County began counting ballots this past Wednesday. As of the end of the day Wednesday, 9878 ballots had been returned in our county, about 54% turnout so far. For Democrats only, the turnout has been a whopping 70%! But this means there are still plenty of ballots that need to be returned. Thank you, Bob and Sandy, for your fabulous skills in recruiting and organizing 40 volunteers to poll watch for this election!
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“Never before in modern presidential politics has a candidate been so reliant on wide-scale efforts to depress the vote as Trump.” ~Politico
The solution? Let’s Get Out The Vote! Here are three things you can do this weekend.
1. GET OUT THE VOTE PHONE CALLS
As phone-banking goes, these are the easy calls. You’ll be calling people who have requested mail ballots but haven’t returned them yet, calling Dems and other Biden supporters to let them know they have to return their ballot to a dropbox or election site and provide them with the information to find the nearest place to return their ballots.
++ Vote Save America to call voters in all the swing states https://www.mobilize.us/2020victory/event/356473/
++ Indivisble Oregon calling voters in Arizona for Biden/Harris and Mark Kelly for Senate https://www.indivisibleor.org/events
2. GET OUT THE VOTE FOR OUR LOCAL AND STATE CANDIDATES WITH A LIT DROP THIS WEEKEND – Join other local volunteers to walk neighborhoods in The Dalles (or Maupin or Mosier if you live there) and hang one last reminder to vote and to turn in ballots at the nearest dropbox. Three brief (15 minutes) trainings and materials pick-up will be held Friday and Saturday at the Wasco County Democrats’ office at 203 Washington St. After the training, you can walk your list at your convenience over the weekend. The weather is supposed to be quite nice so bring a friend for a GOTV walk. Here are the three training times. Pick one and please email me at debiferrer@gmail.com so I know how many people to expect at each training.
Friday at 4 pm OR Saturday at 9 am OR Saturday at 11am
3. SIGN WAVING RALLIES TO GET OUT THE VOTE
For City Council Candidates Dan, Darcy, and Tiffany. Show up at The Dalles Post Office on 2nd St for an hour to wave a sign with a general "go vote today" message, or for one of the three TD city council candidates endorsed by the county Democrats. Text Dan at 541-238-2883 if you can come and include your cell number so he can reach you if there is a last minute change of plans.
Times:
- 8am, Friday, October 30
- 8am, Monday, November 2
- 4pm, Monday, November 2
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ELECTION NIGHT ZOOM PARTY – We will get results for state and local races pretty quickly after 8 pm. According to our county clerk, these results usually reflect about 85% of the vote. We most likely won’t know much about national races for quite a while. But the POP group decided they would like to join together via Zoom to see the results come in, so watch for a link in a couple of days to join a Zoom call starting at 7:45 on election night.
POST ELECTION “PROTECT THE RESULTS” MEETING A group of representatives from POP, Indivisible Columbia Gorge in Hood River, and Columbia Gorge Women’s Action Network will be meeting Wednesday Nov 4 at 11 am to assess the situation and will make a decision about whether or not some action needs to be taken, and if so, when. So please watch Wednesday afternoon for any announcements about that. We plan to spread the word through email and our local activist groups. If we take action, it will be a peaceful protest to Count Every Vote, and we do not want to attract any counter-protesters with guns, so we will not announce any plans in advance of Wednesday afternoon.
Here is some great info about what to expect in the coming days…..
Julian Castro explaining the Blue Shift https://youtu.be/1OkDvEvwORE
How Trump could attempt to steal the election https://youtu.be/2piJKooKQus
https://www.timesonline.com/in-depth/news/2020/10/12/swing-state-north-c...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/29/trumps-effort-steal-e...
https://fortune.com/2020/10/28/trump-biden-pennsylvania-odds-chances-pre...