ECA Goes All-In for Safe and Fair Elections
By Paul Dryfoos, ECA Massachusetts Leadership Team

Elders Climate Action has been working with the Environmental Voter Project since the 2018 election to mobilize environmental voters. Elders Promote the Vote has contacted more than 275,000 voters in 12 key states since the beginning of 2020, and we will continue to contact voters right up through Election Day.
 
Now, with the COVID-19 crisis, we face a very great challenge for this nation to hold a safe and fair 2020 elections. What we saw in the April 7, 2020 Wisconsin election debacle was that many polling places were shuttered, and voters were not provided a reasonable opportunity to vote by mail. Many voters were unable to exercise their constitutional right to vote. Some poll workers subsequently succumbed to the Coronavirus, proving that voting in person can be dangerous, especially to older voters and poll workers.

We have awakened to the reality that we must ensure and protect the rights of all voters to cast a ballot freely, securely, and safely. Election experts tell us that conducting safe and fair elections in November 2020 will require both national and state reforms of election law and procedure, and massive investment in capacity development starting right now.

This is why ECA and the Elders Action Network decided to focus our members’ and the public’s attention on the importance of this challenge, with the Elders Stand for Fair Elections campaign. The purpose is very simple:
 
Make sure that every eligible voter gets to cast a vote safely and have that vote duly counted. We believe that an election that reflects the will of the people is the prerequisite to climate action and the cornerstone of a successful democracy. We can’t take a safe and fair 2020 election for granted - we need to fight for it. 

That's exactly what we are doing as we mobilize our national network to:

• Work in key states to make sure public officials understand the overwhelming public support for COVID-safe and fair 2020 elections.
• Advocate for immediate federal funding to enable states to cover the cost of safe elections.
• Form action teams in selected states to address specific problems at the state and local levels -- where most election laws are made and administered.

Here are several things you can do right now to support safe and fair elections:
 
Participate in our letter-writing campaign to Congress to demand immediate federal funding to states so that they have adequate resources to administer safe and fair elections in 2020. We support the $3.6 billion that was included in the House-passed Heroes Act. Please take a moment to let your U.S. senators and representatives know how strongly you feel about doing everything they can to ensure a safe and fair 2020 Election. It’s important for the Massachusetts delegation to get this message so they will prioritize this funding in any emerging conference committee. We’ve made it easy for you – just click HERE.
 
Join us at a national town hall on safe and fair elections. Wednesday, June 10 at 3 pm Eastern Time. Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZItcOupqjgsHNNFBmyIIKF4D_T9k_Fc79I5
 
Volunteer with Elders Promote the Vote to help older environmental voters cope with changing election procedures and obtain their mail-in ballots. We urge you to sign up for both text and phone banking. We will train you and host weekly phone and text banks. 
Sign up here: https://www.eldersclimateaction.org/promotethevote/
 
We have an abiding belief that the best path to the kinds of environmental and social policies that we know are necessary is a safe, fair and inclusive 2020 election. That’s why we’re working so hard to influence this in a positive direction. We hope you will join us for this crucial fight! 
 

 

 
Update on Massachusetts Climate Legislation
ECA Massachusetts Legislative Team
 

ECA Massachusetts Chapter Activities and Updates
 

May ECA Massachusetts Chapter Meeting
 

On May 12, our regular second-Tuesday-of-the-month ECA Mass Chapter Meeting gathered 31 people via Zoom to hear our featured guest presenter Casey Bowers, Legislative Director for the Environmental League of Massachusetts, who spoke on ELM's focus now to protect the state’s “green budget” from being slashed as a result of the state’s revenue shortfall. 
 
Casey reminded us that Massachusetts is in the Clean Energy States Alliance, but that we are behind New York and California in moving to cleaner energy. Casey reported that with the COVID-19 emergency, the Commonwealth probably will extend budget considerations until July 1. She expects funding for Mass Health and other public health concerns to grow, probably cutting funds in the rest of the budget by about 15% because Mass is required to have a balanced budget. Currently only about .06% of the state budget goes to environmental concerns, but connecting COVID-19 and climate concerns could influence that. ELM will focus on protecting line items, and although public health funding is a priority now, voters are ranking climate change and energy issues higher, and more budget is anticipated to expand resilience and mitigation efforts, with funding from real estate transfer taxes.
 
ELM and its allies are active in the Statehouse, meeting with groups like the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, the Department of Conservation and Recreation, and the Department of Environmental Protection, and supporting the 2050 Roadmap Bill and the FUTURE Act for safer renewable energy, which also addresses  the problems with our natural gas system. Casey does not expect Gov. Baker to support Speaker DeLeo’s “Greenworks Bill” which passed the House last July, due to the bond cap exemption, and because he has a similar bill in the works, S. 10, “Providing for climate change adaptation infrastructure investments”, but said that in her view,  it would be ideal to pass both or combine them.
 
Meetings like this are a special time to hear from our allies like Casey with local expertise and  inside views so we can work with more focus and effectiveness. Please join us, especially while we are meeting on Zoom and you can join in from wherever you are, so you don’t miss valuable briefings like this one.                                     .  

ECA Massachusetts Website

If you haven't checked out our website lately, please do! It's a work in progress, but we're adding news and content you won't want to miss. For example,click on the featured post on the home page to read Arnie Epstein's new research report, The Role of Biomass and Bioenergy in Achieving Net Zero Emissions.

 
ECA Massachusetts Leadership Team
 
If you have questions or want to share ideas, please reach out to a member of the Leadership Team. Although we all multi-task, we’ve noted some of our interests/responsibilities below with our contact information:
 
Maiyim Baron, maiyimbaron@gmail.com – Membership, Chapter meetings
Paul Dryfoos, pauld@eldersclimateaction.org – ECA national liaison, Elders Promote the Vote and Elders Stand for Free Elections
Arnie Epstein, arnold.epstein@comcast.net – Research and Legislative teams, Website
Seth Evans, setherkim@verizon.net – Action Planning team
Rick Lent, rickmlent@gmail.com – Presentation and Education team
Diane Rapaport, diane@dianerapaport.com – Newsletter editor, Website
Larry Rosenberg, larry.rosenberg@gmail.com – Research team
Michael Sales, mjsales@comcast.net – Social Media team