What can I do now?

QUICK LINKS TO: Federal candidates, State candidates, County Supervisor, City Candidates, School District Races, Special District Races, Propositions, Local Measures, Voting/registration information, Ballot drop-off locations, In-person voting locations, “Protect the Vote” volunteer opportunities, Other voting guides/endorsements.

You’ve registered to vote. Your friends are all registered. You’ve checked that Grandma is still on the rolls. Now what?

How do we get to this?

Phone Banking

If you’re wondering what you can do TODAY to remove this nightmare of an administration, reaching out to others and asking them to vote, with phone banking and textbanking, is the most powerful action you can take. For those of us who are phone-phobic, we’re leaving up this very helpful video from Kathryn Grody and her husband, some guy named Mandy Patinkin, (“Inconceivable!“) to break it down and dispel your fears.

WAIT!!! DON’T ZIP ON PAST THIS! Yes, us introverts were effective door-knockers before COVID-19, and we can become successful phonebankers too! But since we’re the kind of people who want to KNOW WHAT WE’RE GETTING INTO BEFORE WE DO ANYTHING, we’ve put up some videos, even one especially for people like us. (But we know you’ll be studying all three!) We can do this!

  • Request your Biden-Harris yard and window signs here
  • Your Ventura County Democratic Voter Guide is here!
  • Reclaim Our Vote’s Billboard Campaign.
  • Oct. 24th – The NILC Immigrant Justice Fund will be holding a text bank training Saturday at 10 am PT.  Sign up here to text voters and find other events
  • Download a state-by-state Biden/Harris graphic for your phone lockscreen here and some cool graphics for your social media here.
  • Share this voter assistance hotline sheet on your social media.

Tuesday Events:

  • 11/3: CADEM
    • Battleground: Carmen Ramirez for Supervisor, also Julia Brownley, Jacqui Irwin, & Monique LimonOxnard GOTVđź“ž on Wed & Sat for Ramirez, Limon, Brownley, & Irwin – Stop the oil takeover of our Board of Supervisors!: Here. 11:00 am–1:00am PDT
    • Phonebank anytime for Biden-Harris & Key U.S. Senate Races here.
  • 11/3: Grassroots Democrats – RSVP
    • Tues. 11/3, 6:00am-8:00am
    • Tues. 11/3, 8:00am-10:00am
    • Tues. 11/3, 10:00am-12:00pm
    • Tues. 11/3, 1:00pm-3:00pm
    • Tues. 11/3, 4:00am-6:00pm.
  • 11/3: Victory 2020 Sign up here.
    • Tue, Nov 3, 9:00am–11:30am PST
    • Tue, Nov 3, 12:00pm–2:30pm PST
    • Tue, Nov 3, 3:00pm–5:30pm PST
    • Tue, Nov 3, 6:00pm–8:30pm PST
  • 11/3: ENVIRONMENTAL VOTER PROJECT – here.
  • 11/1-11/3: GOTV Out-of-State ThruTalk Dialer Phone Bank with Battleground Iowa SIGN UP
  • 11/3: – IOWA – Hay Que Girar A Iowa Haciendo Llamadas Desde Casa! English/Spanish BilingualPhone Bank with Swing Left and Battleground Iowa SIGN UP 9:00am – 12:00 pm
  • 11/3: Flip the West – Various states – here.
  • 11/3: Flip the West – Banco de telĂ©fonos en español: Ganemos el Senado y la Casa Blanca! Sign up here.
    • Tue, Nov 3, 9:00am–12:00pm PST
    • Tue, Nov 3, 12:00pm–3:00pm PST
    • Tue, Nov 3, 3:00pm–7:00pm PST
  • 11/3: MICHIGAN – GOTV phonebank. All day shifts!  SIGN UP.
  • 11/3: NORTH CAROLINA phone banking: Here. (Together for 2020)
  • 11/3: NORTH CAROLINA – phone banks from 9 a.m. – 9 p.m Saturday and Sunday. Shifts are 3 hours (but you can do less). You will be calling supportive voters and helping them make a plan to vote! SIGN UP
  • 11/3: NAACP is asking for volunteers to call/text to infrequent Black voters in October. Call or text up to 20 infrequent Black voters in your community and encourage them to vote. We’ll send you a contact list and talking points. Volunteer entirely from home if you choose. Set your own time commitment: a few minutes to a few hours per week in October. Sign up here.
  • 11/3: INDIVISIBLE: PENNSYLVANIA/FLORIDA – Click here to sign up to phonebank, then check out our phonebanking schedule to find a time before Election Day that works for you. If you’re new to phonebanking or just need a refresher, join us for a live training during the first 30 minutes of the call and/or watch the Indivisible training video above.
  • 11/2/-11/3: Swing Left: Phonebanking dates from today to Nov. 3rd. Here. (Training video above)
  • 11/3: North Carolina phone banking: Dates from today to Nov. 3rd. Here. (Together for 2020)

TEXTING

  • 11/3: INDIVISIBLE CHICAGO: MICHIGAN– 12:00pm – 3:00 pm CT here.
  • 11/3: Black Voters Matter (BVM): Sign up to be BVM texter, and you can help us send out text messages to encourage people to participate in elections. Current campaigns – National, Louisiana Alabama
  • 11/3: Join Commit to Flip Blue’s drive to flip the Senate. 10:00am PT here.
  • 11/3: CALL AND TEXT MOMS:  Moms Rising  is coordinating GOTV calls/texts to moms who don’t always vote. https://action.momsrising.org/sign/GOTV_phonetext_2020  
  • TEXT BLACK VOTERS:  People For the American Way Foundation is volunteering with Defend the Black Vote campaign to text Black voters in states across the country in an effort to fight back against voter suppression efforts and increase voter turnout in 2020.  Sign up here: https://act.pfaw.org/sign/dtbv-signup 
  • 11/2: TOGETHER 2020: Text Florida Dems personalized voting guides – 8am-9am PT – here.

Volunteer phone/textbanking per state/race

Volunteer opportunities to protect our elections.

  • Sign up here! We need your help to protect voters’ rights from the unprecedented threats they will face this year when trying to cast their ballot. Nonpartisan Election Protection volunteers like you will be voters’ first line of defense against restrictive election laws, coronavirus-related voting disruptions, or anything else that could silence their voices.
  • Biden/Harris Campaign: Volunteer with the Biden/Harris campaign here. You can sign up to be at the polls during in-person voting, or to work on the voter assistance line.
  • Equal Justice Society: The national, nonpartisan Election Protection coalition, a co-sponsor of EJS’ voter summit, are rapidly ramping up recruitment of Election Protection volunteers. Please sign up to volunteer!
    • The Equal Justice Society held a virtual Voter Mobilization & Protection Summit in April. (Video of meeting included in link) involving leaders of The New Georgia Project, SEIU 1021, Disability Rights California, Advancement Project, The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Transformative Justice Collective, and She the People.
    • There’s a role for everyone — whether it’s helping voters from home, assisting voters safely in person, or tracking online disinformation. Nonpartisan Election Protection volunteers like you will be voters’ first line of defense against restrictive election laws, coronavirus-related voting disruptions, or anything else that could silence their voices.
    • The Election Protection team will help you find the best way to get involved — whether that’s monitoring polling places (from your vehicle, or remotely), watchdogging social media for disinformation and voters in need of help, or reaching out to voters to make sure they know their rights. 
    • Unfortunately, voters this year will face obstacles that have no place in a modern democracy — and these impediments to voting will hit communities of color the hardest.
  • SURJ National – Election Defender: SIGN UP HERE! If you are able, you can also help by DONATING to SURJ’s Transformative Electoral campaign.
    • What is an Election Defender?:
    • Election Defenders are the core leaders in local areas that will be the heartbeat of our campaign to defend the right to vote, and the integrity of the 2020 presidential election. Election Defenders will be part of a team of 200 people that will recruit & develop 1,000 grassroots SURJ leaders who will move 100,000 people to take sustained and visible action
    • As and Election Defender, you will recruit a core group of 5 people to plan 2 visibility actions before the election 1 action during the election and 1 action after the election.
    • When you sign up you’ll get:
    • Training on recruitment, direct action planning, telling your personal story, and understanding key topics such as fascism, racial capitalism and SURJs theory of change.
    • Guidance from coaches and trainers on planning local visibility actions such as action to protect the USPS, hold election officials accountable, defend voters against intimidation from law enforcement and white supremacists, and to call out Trump and the GOP’s attempts to intimidate voters.
    • Resources to help you plan your actions and recruit people into action with you.
    • Connection to hundreds of other leaders across the SURJ network to build community and provide mutual support.
    • Election Defender Commitment:
    • Volunteer 5 hours per week from September 8th to November 20th performing the following tasks.
    • Attend weekly national trainings and host a weekly local team meetings (zoom or in person).  
    • Recruit and facilitate a group of 5 or more local friends, family, activists, and organizers.
    • Help plan and lead 2 actions before the election, 1 on election day, and 1 after election day.
    • Meet with a coach two times.
    • Participate in discussions and questions and answers using Slack (communication app).
  • Movement for Black Lives: They are enlisting “Election Defenders”; they will be trained to provide safe supports for voting (such as PPE and water) as well as to offer election & voter defense; they hope to de-escalate right-wing intimidation tactics and will contact a network of groups and lawyers, if and where trouble arises.  Given the GOP supporters intimidation tactics at the Fairfax VA polls in mid-September, the avowed intention of Republicans to recruit tens of thousands of unofficial “poll watchers” and Trump’s call out to the Proud Boys in the first presidential debate, check out MFBL’s site and consider signing up for training.

Report Voter Intimidation.

  • See Something, Say Something (2020): Report issues preventing free and fair voting here.
  • CADEM’s VOTER HOTLINE: (877) 321-VOTE (8683). Trained volunteers and the CADEM Voter Protection Team Hotline will assist you between Tuesday, October 20, 2020, until the polls close on General Election Day, Tuesday, November 3, 2020. 

Targeted donations!

  • Reclaim Our Vote’s Billboard Campaign.
  • DONATE:
    • See Win2020 Networks list of strategic donations for winning the White House and flipping the Senate. If you are planning to donate, sooner is better! Candidates report donation totals at the end of each month. These reports affect how national funding organizations view their chances, and so how much funding they get.
  • Help Florida’s former prisoners pay fines to restore their voting rights /Donate/Share information! – Deadline Oct. 5. Former prisoners, who fought a hard-won battle to get their voting rights restored, now are forced to pay all fines and fees before they can vote. This interesting article explains Florida’s egregious system of financial penalties that accompany criminal convictions, down to graffiti. Estimates are in the hundreds of millions.
  • Donate to “We Got the Vote“:  They are collecting money to help pay these fees and restore lost voting rights. If you are able to donate, learn more about their program and donate here. Whether you donate or not, please help spread the word on social media. Especially now, especially in Florida, every vote counts: https://wegotthevote.org/finesandfees/
  • Ask wealthy funders to help: Michael Bloomberg has donated $16 million to the cause already. Email Bill Gates (media@gatesfoundation.org) and contact Tom Steyer through his web form (https://www.tomsteyer.com/contact/), and ask them to help too. 774,000 people are being deliberately disenfranchised. Your letter can be simple and short. Proposed script: (make it sound like you.)
    • Dear Mr. ______I’m know you’re interested in a just and fair election. Despite the Florida voters’ clear intent to restore the vote to former felons, the GOP-controlled legislature added on a Jim Crow-style requirement, recently upheld by the Florida Circuit Court of Appeals, continuing their disenfranchisement until they paid off all fees and fines. Florida’s records are so disorganized, many can’t determine what they owe, but if they guess wrong and vote, they could go back to jail and many can’t afford to pay at all. This is not how America is supposed to work.We need your help. Former CA Gov. Schwartzenegger offered to sit down with officials to help reopen polling places. The right to vote is being held for ransom in Florida. Please, would you network with others with similar power and  make a deal with the governor to restore the dignity of the vote to over 770,000 people?  – Thank you for your consideration.

Other things to do!

  • Volunteer to help blind voters!

 Be My Eyes is a simple, free tool to connect blind and low-vision people with sighted volunteers for help with daily tasks. The platform will be training volunteers to help users register to vote with Vote.org tools and is looking for more volunteers to participate. There is no minimum time commitment and it’s super flexible — you can choose when to answer a support call.  They are hosting a training Tuesday, September 15th at 9:30am PT which will be recorded. Sign up here.

  • Become a Poll Worker. (https://www.powerthepolls.org/NAACP) In Ventura County, unfortunately because of the pandemic, community groups aren’t able to participate in our adopt-a-poll program for in this election. Luckily, Ventura County was able to get all the temporary personnel they needed for the election. Over 1600 people applied for 600 slots!
  • COMPLETE THE CENSUS: Actually, if you’re reading this, we’re pretty sure you have. So, cruise through your digital rolodex, and check with all your friends and relatives, especially those without access to computers. The Census is not just about dividing up money, though that is pretty important. (https://my2020census.gov) How much money are we talking about?

It’s also about how many representatives and how much political power our community will have for the next 10 years! It’s enough of an issue for Trump to lie and cheat to try to get his hands on this information BEFORE the next election.

How does Ventura County compare? National – 65.6%, CA – 68.0%, Ventura County – 75.5%, Camarillo – 82.5%, Fillmore – 70.9%, Moorpark – 82.5%, Ojai 71.9%, Oxnard – 68.2%, Port Hueneme – 67.2%, Santa Paula – 73.0%, Simi Valley – 81.1%, Thousand Oaks – 81.3%, Ventura – 74.7 %, Westlake – 80.6%.

The census deadline has been extended, and you can still complete the 2020 census online, by phone, or by mail. It is now more imperative than ever to make sure that every citizen is counted, as the resources allocated by the Census count can be distributed to the lower income communities that will be disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and by police reform. You can go to the US Census website to find out more on how to complete it.

QUICK LINKS TO: Federal candidates, State candidates, County Supervisor, City Candidates, School District Races, Special District Races, Propositions, Local Measures, Voting/registration information, Ballot drop-off locations, In-person voting locations, “Protect the Vote” volunteer opportunities, Other voting guides/endorsements.