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Hi John,
There’s been a lot in the news recently about vote-by-mail and the impact of COVID-19 on the upcoming elections (including, of course, press about our launch). We want to take a break from our usual ask of $25 to send 20 vote-by-mail applications to targeted voters to give you a quick recap of some of the biggest stories that we’ve been watching from the past week.
This week started with great news from Michigan's Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson, who announced that Michigan would be sending every registered voter an absentee ballot application. Trump didn’t waste any time in showing his intentions on this -- tweeting a threat to withhold federal funds from Michigan if she went through with her plan.
This issue could end up being resolved in the courtroom, in which case the Trump and McConnell court-packing of the past 3 years could play a decisive role, underscoring the importance of our grassroots mission to send vote-by-mail applications directly to Americans in 2020!
Following this back-and-forth between Secretary Benson and President Trump, Nevada was highlighted in a number of news articles as a state that already successfully and widely promotes vote-by-mail, even though their Secretary of State administering elections is a Republican. Trump doubled-down and went after Nevada as well, demonstrating his commitment to suppressing the vote and limiting safe voting options, even if it pits him against his own party!
Many of these articles also pointed out the hypocrisy that Trump himself voted by mail in the recent Florida primary election. Makes you wonder why he's so staunchly against Americans casting their ballots safely in 2020..."
Finally, some more good news from Wisconsin as state legislators proposed a bill to make absentee voting easier for the 2020 general election. It’s unclear if this bill can make it through Wisconsin's Republican-controlled legislature, but it's encouraging to see progress being made. Grassroots support can make a difference so if you live in Wisconsin or know someone who does, flag this story and reach out to legislators so they can pass this bill.
And some new developments from North Carolina and Pennsylvania as well. In North Carolina, the League of Women Voters along with Democracy North Carolina filed a lawsuit against the State Board of Elections, challenging absentee ballot requirements that would prevent risk of COVID-19 exposure from being a valid reason to vote-by-mail; while in Pennsylvania the state Supreme Court declined to extend the absentee voting period, potentially disenfranchising thousands of voters particularly in AAPI and other communities of color.
Meanwhile, here at Vote From Home 2020 we have been working hard to ramp up our operation and get ready to organize for this summer! We only have to look back at this last week of news coverage to see how important this fight over vote-by-mail is going to be, and how much work we have to do to take on Trump, the courts, Republican legislators, and a giant misinformation campaign designed to stop us.
We’re not intimated though, we’re fired up to build a grassroots movement that will help us counter all of that and ultimately ensure that we are able to get out the vote safely in the most vulnerable communities across the country.
Thank you for being in this fight with us.
We have one small ask that will make a huge difference: Will you forward this email to 3 friends, and ask them to sign up to join our movement? Or tweet one of the articles above with our sign-up page and hashtag: www.votefromhome2020.org #votefromhome2020
All the best and have a safe Memorial Day weekend,
Vote From Home 2020
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