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Dear Supporter,

 Somewhere a bell was rung and another epic moment in human history
begins.

It seems every generation suffers some calamity that must be overcome. In
Thomas Jefferson’s day he thought:

”The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of
patriots and tyrants.”

The Civil War, World War I, the Great Depression and then World War II
all brought great fear and challenge.

The tyrant we now fight is something called a virus that is not even able
to replicate itself (a defining characteristic of animal and plant life),
unless it finds its way into the living cells of an organism. In this case,
us.

I wake up every morning hoping that I am no longer in the Twilight Zone,
but the eerie quiet seeps in and brings me back. Back to the horror of what
might happen to those without resources, those unable to protect themselves
and those who will put themselves in harm’s way by rushing into hospitals
and labs to help the sick, or those keeping the food on our shelves, the
utilities operating or just helping their neighbors.

We are all scared and we all want to help out, particularly those kinds of
people like you who would build something like [2]Vote Smart.

I take some solace in knowing how smart Vote Smarters are, knowing that
you will take all possible steps to protect yourselves and help fellow
citizens when you can.

All this and arguably the most important election in history rumbling
behind this dreadful scene and about to crash right on top of us.

Know this: your Vote Smart staff is not abandoning ship, not that they
have no fear, there is real fear. In fact, two of our office staff were
ordered home by their doctors but have improved, from what, we do not know.

As for the rest of the staff members, each understands the importance of
what we do, what you made possible, and how crucial Vote Smart is to the
coming elections’ outcome. So, each has set up an office in their own home,
where they find the most clever means to continue their research and
install each day’s updates into that Voter’s Self-Defense System you
created and on which growing millions now depend.

The only people that will be coming into the offices are our National
Director, Walker McKusick, and four others, Annie Petersen, our Research
Director, James Wypych, our Courage Test Director, Jacob Petterson, our
Communications Director, and Mackenzie Carlson, our Office Manager, all to
coordinate our 20 staff working out of home offices. The office doors will
be locked, the office sanitized daily with each Director working in their
own separate individual office area.

The staff’s efforts remind me of an old word rarely used today: moxie

That is what your staff has, a whole lot of moxie.

Stay safe, this world cannot afford to lose you.

Richard Kimball

Vote Smart President

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Vote Smart is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that provides accurate
information about candidates, elected officials, and key pieces of
legislation. By providing information in an easy and accessible manner,
Vote Smart believes that citizens can better defend themselves from the
questionable rhetoric and misrepresentation that characterizes present-day
political campaigns.

References

1. [link removed] Smart & Covid-19
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3. [link removed]
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