September Newsletter: The Volunteer Issue

1) September 7: Join PA-PAC for a fall election endorsement meeting

2) Centerfest is back! September 17 & 18: Volunteers needed for the PA booth!

3) Renew or donate to support the work (renew NOW to vote in upcoming PAC meeting)

4) Help your neighbors in crisis — volunteer at Eviction Court

5) Opportunities from our partners at the Community Empowerment Fund

6) Support a new History Marker

PA Political Action Committee (PAC) Endorsement Meeting

The People's Alliance PAC will host a virtual endorsement meeting on Wednesday, September 7th at 6 pm.

To attend you must:

(1) be a current member of People's Alliance, and

(2) register to attend the endorsement meeting.

If you have already registered, there is no need to do so again. The Zoom link will be emailed to the address you used to register before the meeting begins.

People's Alliance PAC members will consider endorsements in races for Sheriff, and Soil and Water Supervisor. We will also consider an endorsement regarding municipal bonds that will appear on the November ballot.

Your Voice Mattered

Back in July we joined in an effort to stop the NC General Assembly from changing the rules regarding valid signatures for mail-in ballots. According to Politico (July 17, 2022):

The NC Board of Elections, in a 3-2 party line vote, rejected state Republicans’ request for signature verification on absentee ballots.  

Republicans wanted local elections officials to be able to compare voters’ signatures on their registration cards against signatures on requests for absentee ballots and on the returned ballots. 

Instead, the board’s Democratic majority approved a declaratory ruling stating the opposite. They decided county elections officials don’t have the legal authority to verify signatures to determine if voters should receive mail-in ballots and if votes should be counted.  

Thank you for calling and writing to the State Board of Elections!

Please renew your PA membership for 2022! There is a LOT of work to do and PA is building the team and infrastructure to make it happen.

Renewing before September 5th will allow you to vote in the upcoming PAC meeting.

Honoring Booker T. Spicely

The People's Alliance board has decided to write a letter in support of a historic marker to commemorate the life and martyrdom of Booker T. Spicely, an African American soldier who was fatally shot by a white bus driver in Durham after he objected to Jim Crow segregation during WWII. 

You can find that letter on the PA blog.

If you would also like to make your voice heard please send a word document or PDF, or just paste your text into an email and send to John Schelp ([email protected]) by September 30, 2022.  The salutation can be “Dear NC Marker Advisory Committee Members.”  It will then include all submissions with our application for a historic marker.

Gratitude from the Committee working on this effort:

Mandy Carter, Eddie Davis, Gretchen M. Engel, Walter Jackson, Joseph F. Jordan, Irving Joyner, Philip J. Penn, John Schelp, Tim Tyson, James E. Williams Jr.

People's Alliance
http://www.durhampa.org/