Happy Tuesday, Activists!
21 DAYS TO THE ELECTION
You may have seen that Senator Amy Klobuchar delivered a blistering opening statement yesterday during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the Barrett Supreme Court nomination.
And for part of it she was talking to us --
“We don’t have some clever procedure to stop this sham, to stop this nominee. But we have a secret weapon that they don’t have. We have Americans who are watching . . . . Let me tell you a political secret – I doubt it will be a brilliant examination that’s going to change this judge’s trajectory this week. No. It is you. It is you calling Republican senators and telling them enough is enough. Telling them it is personal. Telling them they have their priorities wrong. So do it. And it is you voting, even when they try to do everything to stop you. . . . . So do it. This isn’t Donald Trump’s country. It is yours.”
Watch her inspiring speech at this link. And then let's get to it.
PA VOTING DEADLINES – Remind your friends and family!
Voter Registration deadline is next MONDAY, October 19.
Vote By Mail sign-up deadline is October 27.
VOTING UPDATE
Here’s an exhaustive list of information on voting. (At least our crack research staff is exhausted.) And remember we need to educate every voter about mail-in ballot rules and about voting on Election Day.
1. Get your week off to a good start. You can watch and share this video by Jenkintown’s own Bradley Cooper explaining how to vote in Pennsylvania!
2. Remember the Pa. Republicans’ attempt to create the last-minute “election integrity” panel with subpoena power? They dropped it last Friday.
3. Beware Of Selfies With Your Ballot! Please be very careful taking a selfie of yourself dropping off your mail-in ballot. Make sure you are ONLY dropping off your own ballot and the photo reflects that you are following all the regulations and laws. Better yet, NO selfies! We heard of a recent incident where someone took a photo of their partner holding both of their ballots next to a drop box and of course posted it on social media. A legal claim was filed falsely claiming that this person was dropping off the partner’s ballot, which in most cases would not be legal. So be careful out there and don’t get yourself in trouble.
4. Satellite offices – Two more have opened, at The Creative and Performing Arts School and The AB Day School. You can find the full list along with hours of operation, on our Philly Vote-by-Mail FAQs page.
5. Drop boxes – Two are currently open:
1. Outside the southern gate to City Hall
2. Outside the voter registration office at 520 N. Columbus Blvd.
6. Polling Places –
Here is the list of the nearly 1,400 current polling places to be open on Election Day.
Here’s another great Billy Penn article listing all of this. And on your way, you can support Billy Penn too!
7. VBM or ballot status can be found at this link.
8. Attend a webinar/interview with PA Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar about overseeing the November 3 election.
October 19, 10:00 am. Sign up here.
9. Want a clerical job with the Commissioners to help open more satellite offices, or know someone who might? They are looking for Clerical Assistants immediately. (I know, nothing like waiting until right before the election, but that’s where we are). Click here to apply.
10. More questions answered.
Here is a good Billy Penn article answering all sorts of questions about dropping off your mail-in ballot.
Here is a good Inquirer article/guide that answers all kinds of questions about voting rules at this time.
11. Data! On mail-in ballot returns – Click here to see the breakdown by party statewide and by county.
CALL TO ACTION
Do what Amy Klobuchar asked us to do!
Keep up the pressure to #SaveSCOTUS! Keep making calls to Toomey’s office. If one office voicemail is full, try another one.
Here are the office phone numbers:
Philadelphia 215-241-1090
D.C. 202-224-4254
Allentown 610-434-1444
Erie 814-453-3010
Harrisburg 717-782-3951
Johnstown 814-266-5970
Pittsburgh 412-803-3501
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 570-820-4088
Here’s the sample script:
I demand that Senator Toomey REFUSE to consider any Supreme Court Justice until the new president is inaugurated. As Senator Toomey said about appointing a Supreme Court justice in 2016: “With the presidential election fewer than 8 months away, it is wise to give the American people a more direct voice in the selection and confirmation of the next justice.” Do the right thing and let the American people use their voice.
PROTECT THE VOTE ON ELECTION DAY
1. Be a Poll Observer.
The PA Dems need your help to ensure fair elections and you can be a Poll Observer and help out.
Sign up here for Poll Observer training. Two training dates – Monday, October 19, at 6:30 pm or Thursday, October 22, at 6:30 pm.
Training is essential and covers the new PA election laws and procedures.
2. Stop Voter Suppression – be a Polling Place or Social Media Monitor for the ACLU
The ACLU has two opportunities in its Election Protection program. They are looking for volunteers to:
Monitor polling places (you don’t need to be a lawyer); or
Monitor social media for problems.
Sign up here to volunteer for either role on Election Day. through the Common Cause website.
3. Voter Protection Opportunities for Legal Professionals
Are you a legal professional? Help the Biden campaign on Election Day as an in-person poll observer, virtual hotline operator, or other voter protection volunteer.
Sign up here. The Biden team will follow up with you with opportunities to also work remotely. Training will be provided.
4. Be a Canvass Observer (to protect mail-in vote counting) for the Biden Campaign as the mail-in ballots are counted. Go to JoeBiden.com/ProtectPolls to or call 833-PA-VOTES.
REACH OUT TO VOTERS
We’ll be on Zoom for all the events. Once you sign up, we’ll send you the link.
PHONE BANKING –
SPECIAL EVENT TOMORROW! 8:15 pm – Indivisible’s National Phonebank with Jon Favreau from Pod Save America!
For our Wednesday Phone Bank -- Join the Indivisible National Phonebank with Pod Save America’s own, Jon Favreau! With his experience writing speeches for President Obama and hosting one of America’s most popular political podcasts, Jon is sure to inspire us all to get to work. Whether you’re new to phonebanking or a seasoned professional, phonebanking is more fun with some company. Sign up here.
Call a Philly voter you already wrote postcards to! Sign up and you might just call someone who received a card you wrote.
I know, you think you don’t like to make phone calls. But the calls are good. You might not talk to a hundred people, but you’ll talk to a few and have good conversations.
Every Tuesday – TONIGHT! 6:00 pm
Phone Bank for Joe Biden
Every Friday – 4:00 pm
Phone Bank for Joe Biden Sign up here.
More Phonebanking -- Indivisible National Phonebanks to call voters in key states.
Dates: October 17, from 3 pm to 6 pm ET -- Register here.
October 24, from 3 pm to 6 pm ET – Register here.
October 31, from 3 pm to 6 pm ET -- Register here.
POSTCARDS We’re getting down to the wire!
These events are for people who already have their postcards and labels. Every Wednesday – 11:00 am Cards & Coffee Sign up here. Every Thursday – 6:00 pm Cards & Cocktails Sign up here. Next Sunday 10/18 -- 12:00 Noon - This is our last one! Postcards Over Brunch a/k/a Office Hours Sign up here. CANVASSING / LITERATURE DROPS FOR JOE BIDEN We had a great time dropping Biden/Harris literature at Philadelphia doors this past Saturday. But the Biden campaign’s strategy for doing this, which has changed, makes it more practical for us to change our plans as well. It now makes more sense for you all to go directly to the PA Dems website and sign up for whichever day you want and at any of the locations that work best for you. So please sign up for this incredibly important work at the links below.
South Philly – 1927 South 7th Street – Sign up for a shift here.
Northwest Philly – 7254 Limekiln Pike – Sign up for a shift here.
Chinatown Area – 1100 Vine Street, Unit C5 – Sign up for a shift here.
✍🏼 POSTCARD PROJECT UPDATE ✍🏼
We’re in the final stages of wrapping up this hugely successful project. We are delivering the very last of the postcards and addresses today. We cannot thank all of you who participated enough.
Whether you wrote postcards, or sponsored the effort with your donations, or brought along your friends to write cards too, or whatever you did, THANK YOU! We’re truly all in this together and it sure showed in the enormous participation in this project.
But you know our work is not done. Please sign up for any of the GOTV efforts listed above and let’s bring this home for a landslide Blue Victory.
A few reminders –
1. Don’t forget the dates for mailing your completed GOTV postcards.
If you are outside the Philadelphia area, the mailing date is October 21.
If you are in Philadelphia, the collar counties or South Jersey, your mailing date is October 24.
2. Get a poster!
Get a memento of this huge project! Tell us if you want a 12”x18” poster of our gorgeous GOTV postcard pictured above.
We’ll either deliver or ship the poster to you. Just donate $20 for in-person delivery or $30 if we need to mail it to you. Donate $20 or $30 here and then email us here and tell us you want a poster.
3. Sponsor 1,000 Voters!
There’s still time to show your support for this project and help to defray our big costs. To give you an idea of our expenses, we’ve sent out nearly 155,000 GOTV postcards and addresses in just the last three weeks! This project has been so much more successful than we ever dreamed possible thanks to our wonderful postcard writers, but it doesn’t come without a big cost and our budget doesn’t keep up.
Just a $35.00 donation will help pay for postcards to 1,000 voters! Many of you have already donated and we thank you so much!
Announcing 🥁 🥁 🥁 The final results for our Postcard Project
Over half a million postcards to Philly voters!!! Whoo-hoo!!
Your work on this has been incredibly important for getting out the vote in this critical swing state. So good for you and good for our tiny team of volunteers in our postcard leadership group. Here are the final results – 1,606+ – The number of you fabulous volunteers writing postcards. 35 – States other than Pennsylvania with volunteers writing our postcards. You can see a lot of them in our recent newsletter here. We just added Alabama, Texas, Rhode Island, North Dakota, Indiana, and Wyoming. Welcome! 365,450 – The VBM + GOTV postcards & addresses we sent to our writers. 44,550 – The Voter Registration addresses we sent to our wonderful writers. 50,000 – The number of GOTV addresses we sent as part of our project to a group in Ithaca, NY.
510,000 – OUR GRAND TOTAL!