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FEATURED IN THIS WEEK’S MVCAN NEWSLETTER (3/24/20):

UPCOMING EVENTS AND ACTIONS

1. “VIRTUAL” MVCAN MONTHLY MEETING ON ZOOM - Sunday, April 5, 5pm - 6pm. GUEST SPEAKER Lala Wu, co- founder Sister District.

2. JOIN IN VIRTUAL TOWN HALL WITH CONGRESSMAN JARED HUFFMAN - Tuesday March 24, 5pm - 6pm

3. VIRTUAL TOWN HALL WITH STATE SENATOR MIKE MCGUIRE Weds, March 25 - 6:30pm.

4. WRITING POSTCARDS TO REGISTER VOTERS IN NORTH CAROLINA

5. UPCOMING VIRTUAL TRAINING, PHONE BANKS AND LETTER WRITING

WHERE WE’VE BEEN AND WHAT WE DID

1. LARGE TURNOUT (REMEMBER BIG MEETINGS?) FOR REP. JARED HUFFMAN TALK and Q&A ON MARCH 8TH

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MVCAN MONTHLY MEETING ONLINE - GUEST SPEAKER LALA WU, CO-FOUNDER SISTER DISTRICT

Sunday, April 5, 5pm - 6:00pm

Guest speaker, Lala Wu, from Sister District

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, so MVCAN will have its monthly meeting on April 5 using Zoom for online video conferencing.

Select your favorite snack and beverage, sit back and relax in your own home with your favorite video (or audio) streaming device, and the monthly meeting comes to you.  

We will email Zoom instructions with an invitation several days before our meeting on Sunday April 5th.

Lala Wu, Director of Engagement and Partnerships for the effective national organization Sister District will be our featured speaker. When she spoke to us in 2018 she knocked our socks off with intelligence and inspiration!

The Sister District Project activates the power, passion, and creativity of volunteers to win elections and turn states blue. In 2020, they are focusing on states where the state legislature can be swung so that they can maximize our ability to fight for better state laws and for fair redistricting maps in 2021.

Also at the meeting, hear MVCAN updates on the many types of “Activism from your Couch” activities available to us locally.

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JOIN CONGRESSMAN JARED HUFFMAN IN VIRTUAL TOWN HALL

Tuesday, March 24 at 5pm

Please join Congressman Jared Huffman for an on-line “shelter in place” community town hall on Tuesday, March 24. Rep. Huffman will be joined by local experts to discuss the response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) and answer questions from viewers.

In compliance with Shelter in Place orders, this is not an in-person event. You can participate in the event on Facebook Live at Jared Huffman Virtual Town Hall.

Jared Huffman Virtual Town Hall on Coronavirus Issues
Tuesday, Mar 24, 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Note that the event willI be broadcast live on Marin TV Education Channel (Comcast Ch30 and AT&T Ch 99) and streaming online at cmcm.tv/30.

Special guests will include:

• Dr. Matt Willis - Marin County Public Health Officer (now himself afflicted with COVID 19)

• Mary Jane Burke - Marin County Superintendent of Schools

• William “Bill” Koontz - Public Information Officer, Small Business Administration

If you have questions please contact the Jared Huffman San Rafael office at (415) 258-9657.

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TELEPHONE TOWN HALL WITH STATE SENATOR MIKE MCGUIRE Wednesday, Mar 25, 6:30pm

State Senator Mike McGuire is partnering with the counties of Marin and Sonoma to host a Telephone Town Hall Weds, Mar 25 at 6:30 pm and is inviting community members to join in.

Senator McGuire, along with Sonoma and Marin public health officials and a University of California physician specializing in infectious diseases, will be discussing the latest updates on COVID-19 public health issues.

Telephone Town Hall on Coronavirus
Wednesday, March 25 at 6:30 pm

To Attend: Call 844-767-5679, then enter code 204015. Follow the prompts.

You will be connected to the live town hall via telephone, and you will be able to listen to the officials providing critical updates.

How to ask a question and get involved with the Town Hall:
Email your questions and comments in advance and in real time on Wednesday evening to: Senator.McGuire@Senate.ca.gov

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WRITING POSTCARDS TO REGISTER VOTERS IN NORTH CAROLINA

More than 700 MVCAN members and supporters are now writing postcards at home (from all over the US) using voter data provided by RECLAIM OUR VOTE, which is a nonpartisan voter registration and get-out-the-vote campaign. This campaign reaches out mainly to voters of color on Unregistered and Inactive lists in key voter-suppression states.  

North Carolina is a prime opportunity to pick up a US Senate seat. Let’s engage unregistered voters to vote in November. Democrat Cal Cunningham is neck and neck with the incumbent Republican, Senator Thom Tillis. This could be the seat that tilts the Senate majority to the Democratic party and unseats Mitch McConnell as majority leader.

TO SIGN-UP TO POSTCARD:

New postcard writers should contact Team Lead Dennis Bentley at bentley@community.net.

Repeat postcarders should contact their current team leaders to get more names and addresses.

You will be sent email instructions, a script and 30 names and addresses of rural, deregistered voters in North Carolina. The postcard script will include a phone # and website address so that postcard recipients can check whether their voter registration is current.

Our postcarding efforts with Reclaim Our Vote have already yielded fantastic results. At the end of 2019, there were 5.1 million unregistered voters in Texas. Due to the efforts of several groups, one being Reclaim Our Vote, that number was 4.1 million unregistered voters at the end of February. AMAZING.

You can buy decorative pre-printed postcards online at https://store.usps.com/store/product/cards-envelopes/fanciful-flowers-stamped-card-S_222110. Or you can get them at the post office.

For those already involved in postcarding, if you want more information about postcarding strategies or have other questions, please contact MVCAN lead organizer Bob Haar at politicalbobh@gmail.com.

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UPCOMING VIRTUAL TRAINING, PHONE BANKING and LETTER WRITING

Democracy Action Marin and other groups are offering a huge number and variation of opportunities below to keep you inspired and busy!

As an adjustment to our new shelter-in-place lives, Democracy Action Marin/MVCAN are introducing Zoom video conference phone banking.

Like all the activist groups, we’ve had to innovate. We know phone banking and text banking are among the most well-researched and effective 2-way voter communication tools we have, and happily they are perfectly suited to the times we are living in.

We’ve noticed that we’ve talked with significantly more people than usual in the phone banks we’ve held recently. People are home; they’re feeling isolated and they want to connect. Some of our recent conversations have been very moving.

Below, you will find opportunities below to call and write letters from home on your own.

>>TRAINING FOR ZOOM PHONE BANKING - Weds, Mar. 25, 4-5 pm:

This training will give those of you who have never used Zoom video conference before the opportunity to learn how and those who have done a little Zooming the opportunity to practice.

Email marti.cermak@gmail.com to register so you receive a link to join in Zoom training.

>>ZOOM PHONE BANKING - Saturday, Mar. 28, 3 pm - 5 pm:

We’ll be calling for Christy Smith who is running to replace Representative Katie Hill in California CD-25 (Lancaster) in a Special Election Run-Off on May 12, along with Mark Kelly for US Senate in AZ.

Email marti.cermak@gmail.com to register so you receive a link to join Zoom phone banking.

>>CALLING WITH ENVIRONMENTAL VOTER PROJECT IN PENNSYLVANIA

For those who are more experienced with calling and texting, you’ll find activities below that you can do on your own--there are videos and easy directions for all these opportunities.

A group we have been working with, Environmental Voter Project, just launched a campaign to call voters in Pennsylvania and encourage them to sign up for the newly available vote-by-mail list.

Given the global uncertainty around COVID-19, many people are understandably concerned about going out to vote.

The option to sign up for vote-by-mail is brand new in Pennsylvania, so many voters don't even know it exists. By joining Environmental Voter Project Auto-Dial Calls to PA and calling voters - while they're likely to be home - we are greatly increasing their chances of signing up and actually voting in their upcoming elections.

To get started, please review the Hubdialer Guide and Training Slides.

When you're ready to start calling, go to Hubdialer.com and use the following credentials to log in:

Campaign ID: 21057

Pass Code: 123456

Once you're in, please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the script, and then you can start talking with voters!

Hubdialer works best when lots of people are using it at the same time, so we've set up some Action Hours when we can all make calls together and create an even bigger impact. Action Hours will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4-6pm EST.

>>CALLING WITH RECLAIM OUR VOTE TO DISENFRANCHISED COMMUNITIES

Reclaim Our Vote is the same group that provides our postcarders with names. To also call with them, sign up to be a member of Reclaim Our Vote HERE.

Sign up for phone bank training HERE.

>>LETTER-WRITING WITH “VOTE FORWARD”

Register here with Vote Forward to get started.

Letter-writing is a very effective tool. Once you register for an account with Vote Forward, you’ll be able to adopt voters in Swing States all over the country.

It’s very simple: Vote Forward assigns you to a campaign and provides you with voters’ names and addresses. You’ll print out a 1-pg pre-written letter which you personalize and sign. All you need is a roll of stamps and envelopes.

WHERE WE’VE BEEN AND WHAT WE DID

BIG TURNOUT FOR CONGRESSMAN JARED HUFFMAN TALK and Q/A AT MVCAN MARCH MONTHLY MEETING

Way back when we could still gather face-to-face, at MVCAN’s monthly meeting on March 8th we were fortunate to have Rep. Jared Huffman speak to us and answer many questions from the floor. He spoke about the corona virus outbreak, local environmental issues, and the obstruction by the Trump administration of Congress.

MVCAN leaders hard at work!

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