We are now just weeks from Election Day and there is a lot happening!
Recent Efforts
Since mid-July Anne Frahn has distributed over 4,500 get-out-the-vote letters to members of the UUCPA community, and others have been printing their own letters from the Vote Forward website. Kristi Iverson has been hosting weekly letter-writing “parties” on Zoom, and attendance at these events continues to increase. If you have not yet joined this effort, email Anne or Kristi to find out how to get involved. Note that letter-writing will stop in early October and all efforts will transition to phone banking at that time.
Elsa Schafer and Linda Henigin have been very busy with Reclaim our Vote postcards and phone bank events as well. Since June Linda has distributed ~13,300 postcards to be written to people of color who have been purged from voter rolls or who need encouragement to vote. About 3,000 of those went to people from UUCPA. Linda and Elsa have been hosting weekly postcard writing “parties” on Zoom and Elsa is hosting weekly Sunday afternoon phone banking sessions for the UU Justice Ministry of California (see below). If you would like to join this effort, email Elsa or Linda to find out how. Note that the last postcards will be mailed on October 10th. Like Vote Forward and the UUA’s UU the Vote team, Reclaim our Vote is already transitioning to phone banking.
Now is the Time to Switch to Phone Banking!
Now that we have sent many letters and postcards, it’s time to remind people to vote early, to sign their absentee ballots, and to help them find their vote centers. The best way to do this is by phone banking. Here are some immediate opportunities:
Reclaim Our Vote has weekly Monday 4:30 p.m. phone bank training. To participate, go to: actionnetwork.org/campaigns/monday-phone-bank-training-sessions. You can also find out everything you could ever want to know about phone banking with ROV here: https://bit.ly/ROVPhonebankCentral.
Hesitant about phone banking? Try these links:
“Postcarders, Get Ready to Make Calls!”: http://bit.ly/Move2Phoning
“Phonebanking for Introverts (and Friends)”: https://youtu.be/3O8oFvrSyZE
Alternatively, you can register for a Sunday afternoon Phonebank from 1-4 p.m., led by Elsa. There is training upfront if you’re new to phone banking:
Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry Sunday Phone Bank
At the national level the UUA is hosting bi-weekly phone banking events, suggesting content for worship services to help encourage congregations to “Vote Love and Defeat Hate”, and providing regular opportunities for guidance and for spiritual sustenance. For more information on all of these opportunities, visit the UUA’s UU the Vote webpage.
Be bold and give phone banking a try!
Other Election-Related Efforts
Susan Owicki is working with the Palo Alto Chapter of the League of Women Voters to keep us informed of upcoming election briefings and candidate forums. Sally Ahnger and Karen Skold help identify LWV events in the Mountain View area, and Kristi Iverson helps in the Cupertino-Sunnyvale area. Sally Ahnger is also knocking on doors to encourage people to fill out the census forms.
Tell Us What You Are Doing!
We know there are many of you already participating in these election efforts or doing activities on your own. To help inspire us all, we have created a Google Sheet where you can tell us what you have been doing. Seeing all the efforts in one place will be fun! So if you are doing something you’d like to tell us about, please let us know by updating the document on our Action Council Google drive here.
Thanks for all your contributions to these efforts! Keep it up! Let’s #UU the Vote!!
From your UU the Vote Team