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JOIN * RESIST * ACT * VOTE
>>> Weekly News & Actions <<< 

August 17-23, 2020
78 Days Until November 3, 2020

 QUICK LINKS TO TAKE ACTION 


KEY ACTIONS FOR THIS WEEK:
WISCONSIN:
ILLINOIS:
MICHIGAN:
PHONEBANKING:
TEXTBANKING:
PROTECT OUR ELECTIONS 2020:
SLAY THE DRAGON Documentary Watch Party & Panel Discussion: Aug 23, 4-7pm NEW
 
BOOK CLUB: SIGN UP FOR IE BOOK CLUB: Saturday, August 29, 10-12. "We Were Eight Years in Power," Ta-Nehisi Coates. NEW

CENSUS: SUBMIT your Census Information Online NOW

Thursday, August 20th 8-10 pm

Join Indivisible Evanston to watch the fourth and final day of the Democratic Convention virtually from the comfort of your own home! Watch party streaming information will be provided after your sign up. 
Sign Up for Convention Watch Party

Indivisible has joined with MoveOn and many other national partners for a #SaveThePostOffice action this Saturday, August 22nd at 11:00a local time. You can host an in-person socially distanced rally at your local post office, a caravan, or a digital event on Zoom. Click here to sign up or request more information from MoveOn. We are not hosting a specific event, but encourage you to go on your own or host your own (socially distanced and masked) event!

There’s new bill in the House from Oversight Chairwoman Maloney called the Delivering for America Act that would prohibit the Postal Service from implementing any changes to the operations or level of service it had in place on January 1, 2020, until the COVID-19 pandemic has ended.  This legislation would maintain current service standards as well as the integrity of our elections and bedrock democratic principles. Call your representative to save the post office

Save The Post Office From Trump: August 22 Actions

Join us for Indivisible Evanston's Virtual Monthly Meeting  
August 25, 7-9pm
What You Need to Know About Vote by Mail
  • Tyler St. Clair, Outreach Manager of Common Cause, will speak about the new Illinois legislation. 
  • Aaron Ammons, Clerk of Champaign County, will speak about how voting by mail will work practically in his county and throughout the state. 
  • Alisa Kaplan, Executive Director of Reform for Illinois, will speak about broader issues with vote by mail: research on fraud and partisanship, national trends in vote by mail and election administration.
  • Rose Colacino, Election Integrity & Security Voters' Rights Leader of Indivisible Illinois, will moderate the question and answer period, to ask the panel questions and field questions from the audience. 
Meeting Registration, Confirmation & Question Submission:
  1. Registration: register for the meeting, with the link below. This link will not get you into the meeting, you must receive the confirmation email with the zoom link. Registration Link
  2. Confirmation: once you register, you’ll get an email confirmation from zoom with the link to the meeting. We strongly recommend you put that email and link somewhere ready to hand, so you can easily find it at the time of the meeting.   
  3. If you have trouble getting into the meeting, please don’t re-register.  instead, please email us. We will be checking our email until 7:15.
  4. All attendees will be muted during the meeting.
  5. Question Submission: you can submit a question ahead of time, and you will also be able to post questions in the chat box during the meeting. Given our time constraints, we will do our best to get to everyone's questions but may not be able to do so. Question submission here
Register for Indivisible Evanston's August 25th Monthly Meeting
Missed Our July 21 Meeting? Watch Recording Through August 20th!

 

In the coming weeks, we'll all be getting more involved with taking action with the Biden/Harris campaign, especially after the Democratic convention. Keep checking this space for weekly ideas and information about how we can all do our part to help them win on November 3rd!
Take Action with the Biden/Harris Campaign

APPLY NOW TO VOTE BY MAIL IN COOK COUNTY
for the Nov 3, 2020 Presidential Election!

It's EASY - takes 2 minutes. You need:
 Driver's License or State ID # OR 
Last 4 digits of your social security number
Address where you want ballot mailed
Email address

When you apply online to Vote By Mail, the Cook County Clerk will email you:
• When your ballot is mailed to you,
• When the Clerk's office receives your Ballot Return Envelope, and
• When your ballot has been processed and counted.

Ballots will begin to be mailed out in late September / early October 2020. 
All Vote By Mail ballots come with postage-paid Ballot Return Envelopes.
New this fall: You may submit the Ballot Return Envelope in a secured drop box at any Cook County Early Voting location! You may also use standard US mail. If you use standard US mail to send your Ballot Return envelope, you must get a postmark before or on Election Day, Nov. 3.

Questions? Click here or  call 312.603.0946 or email mail.voting@cookcountyil.gov.

Apply Now to Vote By Mail in Suburban Cook County

Michigan and Wisconsin Voter Registration Program 

Help us flip Michigan and Wisconsin blue! As part of the Indivisible Chicago Alliance, Indivisible Evanston is partnering with the organizations Rust Belt Rising and Register2Vote to to register more voters in Michigan and Wisconsin than the difference in the 2016 election in those two states. Considering that Trump won MI by 10,704 and WI by 22,278 votes, this project has the potential of having significant impact on the outcome in November.

Voter registration rates have plummeted around the country during COVID-19. We believe it is urgent to get more people registered because they will be more likely to vote and they will get the communications from their Secretary of State and campaigns about how to do so safely. 

In Texas, the organization Register2Vote and former Beto O’Rourke volunteers have been using an approach of mailing an application and motivational instructional flyer to people they determine are key unregistered voters, like people who've moved into or around the state. They followed up by texting and calling these people to encourage them to complete their registration. With these multiple forms of outreach to unregistered voters, they have achieved an impressive 25% conversion rate.

We are doing a similar mailing to 100k Michigan and 100k Wisconsin unregistered voters, and we need your help to call and text them about completing their registration. Our training will get you comfortable using our virtual phone and text banks so you can start helping people register to vote in Michigan and Wisconsin!

Indivisible Evanston's phone banking efforts are focused on Wisconsin, and are being led by Bob Best and Linda Tate, who ran the highly successful Milwaukee Voter Registration program. IE Co-Leader Laura Tanner is coordinating the "Texting Team." 

We hope you can be part of this important push to grow the electorate that we will all work on turning out to vote in Wisconsin and Michigan!

Join the MI & WI Texting Team
 
Help us flip Michigan and Wisconsin blue, one text at a time! Sign up to be part of the Texting Team that will send text messages to 200,000 unregistered and likely Democratic voters in MI and WI and get them registered to vote. 

Our goal is to send 400,000 texts to these potential MI and WI voters -- two texts to the 100,000 targeted voters in each state. Considering that Trump won MI by 10,704 and WI by 22,278 votes, this project has the potential of having significant impact on the outcome in November.

We will be using a texting platform called Spoke, which many different campaigns and organizations use for peer-to-peer texting. Sign up for our first Zoom info session and trainings coming up this week:

Wednesday, August 19 from 6-7:30 pm
Saturday, August 22 from 10-11:30 am

Once you sign up, you will get links to sign up for our Zoom meetings and the schedule for text banking the week of August 24th.


Join us and make a difference! Sign up below to text MI and WI voters about completing their registration so that they will be ready to cast their ballots in November.

Questions? Please contact WI and MI Voter Registration Texting Team Leader Laura Tanner
Sign Up To Text MI and WI Voters

Join the Wisconsin Calling Crew

The Wisconsin Voter Registration Program, an offshoot of Indivisible Evanston, is launching a massive voter registration effort next week to reach over 100,000 targeted unregistered voters by phone.  Based on past program experience, we expect to potentially register 30,000 “highly likely” Democrats.
 
After the targeted voters receive their registration packet in the mail, our volunteers will follow up with “chase calls” asking them to complete their registrations and send them in.
 
Want to join us? To participate,  just send an email to the project coordinator, Bob Best and then sign up for one of our upcoming trainings and phone banks.


Start-Up Schedule
 
August 20 – Thursday ZOOM Training Session) 7 - 8pm (CDT) One-hour training. Sign-Up to RSVP

 
August 24 – Monday ZOOM Refresher/Group Calling Session: 7-8:30pm (CDT) 30 minutes then roll in to Phone Bank. Sign Up to RSVP.

August 26 – Wednesday ZOOM Refresher/Group Calling Session: 3-4:30pm (CDT) 30 minutes training and one-hour Phone Bank. Sign-Up to RSVP
 
August 29 – Saturday ZOOM Refresher/Group Calling Session: 3-4:30pm (CDT) 30 minutes training and roll in to one-hour Phone Bank. Sign Up to RSVP.

Interested in making calls to Michigan?
Contact
Bill Mengebier with Indivisible Chicago.
Sign up here for WI Voter Registration Phone Bank
TEXTING TRAINING: August 17, 24 | 5:30 - 7:30
Every Monday Night

TEXTING TUESDAYS TEXTBANK VOTERS:
August 18, 25 | 1:30 - 3:30

Every Tuesday Afternoon
 
Join the Indivisible Evanston/Indivisible Chicago Alliance Texting Team! Texting is a great way to connect directly with voters in addition to making phone calls and writing postcards, especially in a pandemic when we can’t canvass. But it’s not quite as simple as sending a message to your friends from your phone.

Come to one of our texting classes to learn more about how to reach voters through texting. Our weekly Monday trainings on will be for the "IndivisiText Team," the national Indivisible texting program. We'll be learning how to use their platforms, TextOut and Slack. It's easy and fun once you get the hang of it!


This training will make you part of the ICA texting team that will be ready to jump in whenever texting opportunities arise. As usual, we’ll do it together and learn from each other. And once you're trained, you'll be ready to join our regular Zoom group texting sessions (like our virtual phone banks and postcard parties). You can also work on your own schedule!

Our instructors and facilitators are Indivisible Evanston's Co-Leader Laura Tanner and Jessica Droeger from Indivisible Lincoln Square. They’ll prep you to participate in our next group texting sessions and for texting on your own! Once you sign up, you will receive a confirmation email and another email with the Zoom meeting registration link the day of the training.
Sign Up for an August Texting Team Training OR Textbanking Event
JOIN TEAM CASTEN FOR PHONE BANKING TUESDAYS!

We're calling folks to check in to see how they are doing, and if they will support Casten this November. We worked hard for these seats in 2018, and we'll need to work even harder to keep them for 2020!

Sign up here to call Tuesdays from 6:45-8:30pm with Indivisible Evanston. 
Saturday Phone Banks are  also available with the campaign.

Join folks from Indivisible Evanston & other Casten supporters. Training available, too!
Training Note: If you are new to phone banking, a required training session will start 30 minutes before the scheduled start time of the first shift you attend.This training is essential to help you better understand the campaign to re-elect Sean Casten, goals of the program and guidelines for making constituent calls.
  • If you have already attended a training session, you do not need to attend training again unless you want a refresher course or have questions.
  • Equipment you will need:
  • A fully charged cell phone (or your home phone can be used)
  • A computer or tablet (to connect to ZOOM and record results in VAN)
Sign up for Casten Phone Banking & Training
Turning Wisconsin BLUE Depends on YOU!
WI Wednesdays Phone Banks: 6 - 8pm 

⭐️ Our rockstar Calling Crew has made almost over 11,000 calls to WI & we need your help to make more!

WI Wednesdays Phone Banks:
Aug 19, 6 - 8pm: Sign up 
Aug 26, 6 - 8pm: Sign up
September 2, 6 - 8pm: Sign up
September 9, 6 - 8pm: Sign up
September 16, 6 - 8pm: Sign up
September: 23, 6 - 8pm: Sign up
September 30, 6 - 8pm: Sign up


ALL WI Wed. Phone Banks: Sign up here.

Want to flip Michigan? SIGN UP: tinyurl.com/call4blue

New to phone banking? Sign up for a phone bank training session 30 minutes before the phone bank.

📞Calls can be made any day; morning, noon & night. Just attend one of our phone banks for orientation & then call at your convenience.

➡️ We make phone banking easy! Our phone banks begin with a Zoom call orientation and end with the opportunity to debrief. Along the way, our phone bank leaders are available to help you with any problems. After you sign up, we'll get back in touch with all the information you need to connect. We're with you every step of the way! Thanks for joining us in this fight to turn WI BLUE!

Questions? Email kathleenlong@comcast.net.
Sign Up for Wisconsin Wednesdays Weekly PHONE BANKS
New to Phone Banking? Need a Refresher? Sign up for 30 minute Phone Bank TRAINING
WI Wednesdays Calling Crew: Phone Bank Strategy
We are working to turn Wisconsin BLUE and carry it for
Joe Biden & Kamala Harris.

While we do that, we are focusing on the critically strategic battleground areas of the state where Democratic votes are particularly important. This includes some State Assembly districts where Democrats have a chance to flip a seat or need to defend one. The State Assembly races are also critically important, because we cannot let the Republicans get a veto-proof majority there. Especially as things like re-districting are on the table.
We are calling likely Democrats in these areas whose voting record may be spotty. We need to get these likely Dems out to vote. Along with our allies in Wisconsin, including the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, we believe that building awareness and enthusiasm for these local candidates while we ask for support for Biden/Harris will help drive turnout and votes for Democrats up and down the ballot.
We're always working to determine the most strategic focus for our phone calls—it will be changing as we progress through to November as the specific situations change on the ground. Thank you for joining us!
Phonebank for Lauren Underwood in IL-14
Thursdays, 6-8pm
 
Lauren Will Join Us on Sept 3!

 

Sign up to join our Thursday Indivisible Evanston-only virtual phonebank parties!
To date we've made over 3,200 calls to voters in IL-14!


Rep. Underwood's GOP opponent has received endorsements from the NRCC, the House Freedom Caucus, and the Tea Party (remember them?!?). That means a lot of efforts - including a lot of money - is being spent against her.

We've been calling voters in Il-14 for weeks and encouraging them to support Lauren Underwood's re-election in November. Help Rep. Underwood become the first Democrat to win re-election in IL-14!

Details:

  • Phonebanks are hosted by the campaign and last from 6-8pm
  • Training provided by at 6pm - already trained? no problem, start calling whenever you're ready
  • Target is 50 calls, which should only take 60-75 minutes or so (you can always make more calls!)
  • You don't have to stay the entire duration - join when you can and make your target!
REMEMBER! Congresswoman Underwood will join our phonebank Thursday, Sept 3. She’ll come on at 6pm to thank us for our efforts. Please try to join Sept 3rd - we'd love to have a good Indivisible Evanston showing for the Congresswoman!

Can't make Thursdays? Join an Indivisible Chicago phonebank on Tuesday's OR make calls on your own. 

More Activities:

  • Volunteer Organizing Meetings - sign up for for biweekly virtual sessions to hear about outreach and mobilization strategies, and provide feedback to Team Underwood.
  • Postcarding AND textbanking - coming soon!
Photo: IE Volunteers canvassing with Rep. Underwood and her Airstream on Election Day 2018!
Sign up for Underwood Phone Bank Parties on Thursdays 6 - 8pm

Postcards to Wisconsin and Michigan

Join Indivisible Evanston to write postcards to likely Democratic voters in Wisconsin and Michigan, encouraging them to vote in the November Presidential election. We will supply the postcards, names and addresses and script. You just supply the postage (and support the post office at the same time)!

NOTE: Postcards are to be mailed on October 21, not before and not after.  If you want to return the completed and stamps cards to us for mailing in Wisconsin and Michigan, they must be returned to us no later than October 19.


We have packets of 100 cards and materials available for pick up seven days a week at three locations in Evanston. You can also sign up to pick up cards in Chicago with Indivisible Chicago, or order directly online to have them shipped to you if you are outside of the Chicagoland area. Learn more on our BLOG: 

Thank you for joining us! Together we will turn Wisconsin, Michigan, the White House, and Congress Blue!
Sign Up for Evanston Postcard Packets
Register for a Monday Zoom Postcard Party Now

Postcards to Swing States Shipping Kit Assembly

Postcards to Swing States has been inundated by orders since announcing in July that they were adding 8 more states...and they just added four new ones: KY, GA, SC, and TX and upped their goal to 15 million postcards! With this new goal and influx of orders, the organizers are in desperate need of volunteers willing to “kit” the packets of postcards to ship all over the country. That's where we come in!

So far, our our amazing volunteers have packed and shipped over a MILLION cards all over the country. Each week, we are shipping 24 "kits" for the project and we need volunteers to help!

KEY POINTS AND KIT INFORMATION

  • Kit pickups are on Tuesdays and orders must be shipped by Saturday.
  • Volunteers pick up kits containing postcards, paperwork, shipping supploes and prepaid shipping labels.
  • You assemble the kits at home and mail them with USPS (pickup or dropoff)
  • Each kit includes supplies to prep and ship 56 orders of 200 postcards to volunteers.
  • Each kit requires 1-2 hours volunteer time to prep for shipping.
  • Note: postcard boxes are heavy, so please be prepared to lift them. We can help you at pickup!
  • Kits are TIME SENSITIVE and must be shipped within 3-5 days of pickup.

Click here for more information and to sign up.

Thank you for helping us help Postcards to Swing States!

Questions? Please contact Laura Tanner

Sign Up for Postcard Shipping Kits
Slay the Dragon Documentary
Watch Party & Panel with the Film's Stars!  
Sunday Aug 23, 4 - 7pm

Join our Zoom movie theater with our friends at Indivisible Chicago, as we watch the film, “Slay the Dragon." Variety calls it the “most important political film of the year.”

SIGN UP: “Slay the Dragon” Zoom movie theater

Why the Documentary is “Must See”
🔹 Uplifting story of grassroots activism: anti-gerrymandering success in MI; ongoing fight against voter disenfranchisement in WI.

Logistics – it’s easy!

➡️ 4pm: Watch Party
We’ll come together starting at 4:00 to watch “Slay the Dragon”. Attendees will receive a link to rent the film ($4.99) to view along with us, or beforehand on their own.


➡️ 6pm: Rockstar Panel
Immediately following the film, watch the film’s stars on a panel moderated by Indivisible Chicago Alliance’s Darcey Regan:
🔹 Katie Fahey, inspiring hero of Michigan's successful anti-gerrymandering initiative
🔹 David Daley, author of Ratf**cked: Why Your Vote Doesn’t Count and Unrigged: How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy
🔹 Ruth Greenwood, a leader in the ongoing fight against voter disenfranchisement in Wisconsin.

SIGN UP: “Slay the Dragon” Zoom movie theater
SIGN UP: Slay the Dragon Zoom Movie Theater

August Virtual Book Club
Saturday, August 29 | 10am to 12pm

Our next book is Ta-Nehisi Coates' We Were Eight Years In Power: An American Tragedy. This powerful collection of essays originally published in The Atlantic featuries the landmark essay "The Case for Reparations." The National Book Award-winning author of Between the World and Me reflects on race, Barack Obama's presidency and its jarring aftermath -- including the election of Donald Trump. 

Published in 2017, this book is even more relevant today as our country faces an unprecedented reckoning on the issue of our shameful history of racism and violence against Black people. As we approach the November election, Coates' essays provide an important perspective on current events, including the inequity and injustice exposed by the coronavirus epidemic.  More information here.

Sign Up for the August Book Club
Donate to help restore voting rights to over half a million FLA residents!

A 2018 referendum passed by 64% of FL voters amended the state constitution to restore voting rights to persons who had served their sentences (other than those convicted of murder and aggravated sexual assault) only to be undermined by the legislature in requiring all outstanding fees and fines be paid first. A federal judge called this a poll tax but the Supreme Court ultimately upheld the requirement. Florida Rights Restoration Coalition needs our help in providing funds to pay off the fines.

Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC) is a grassroots membership organization, led by returning citizens (formerly convicted persons) who are dedicated to ending the disenfranchisement and discrimination against people with convictions, and creating a more comprehensive and humane reentry system that will enhance successful reentry, reduce recidivism, and increase public safety.

Learn more about this grassroots organization and DONATE HERE.

Volunteer to Protect the Vote in Wisconsin

It goes without saying at this point that Wisconsin is one of the most important states this election season, and we're going to have to do all we can to turn it Blue. That includes protecting the vote.

Join the Wisconsin Democratic Party's Voter Protection Volunteer team!


They are looking for volunteers to be poll workers and poll observers in Wisconsinphone banker to recruit volunteers, or to work the Voter Protection hotline. Click here for more details and to sign up for training.

Donate to the Wisconsin Voter Protection Fund.

Sign Up to Protect the Vote in Wisconsin
This year, it's not enough to vote. In 2020, we all have to act. And we can still stay safe and take action from home.
 
In 2020, Indivisible Evanston is working hard to win back the White House, the Senate, Wisconsin and to keep our gains in the House and here in Illinois. 

Thank you for reading our weekly newsletters, following us on FB and visiting our website for a full list of our 2020 actions. 

We can do this if we all pitch in -- this is a team effort! 
Indivisible Evanston Events & Important Dates

Multiple Dates:
August
September
October
  • 20: IE Monthly Meeting, 7-9 pm, Evanston Civic Center 
  • Women’s March Chicago: March to the Polls: date TBD
  • Multiple Dates: see above
November
  • 3: GENERAL ELECTION!!!  🌊🌊🌊
  • 17: IE Monthly Meeting, 7-9 pm, Evanston Civic Center
  • Multiple Dates: see above
SEE LISTINGS ABOVE FOR MORE DETAILS & to sign up for specific events. 

🦠 RECOMMENDED CORONAVIRUS 🦠 
AND COVID-19 RESOURCES

CDC guidelines
City of Evanston Coronavirus Information 
IL Department of Public Health
Evanston area COVID-19 community support Facebook group

CDC Guidelines on Wearing Cloth Masks

For our most up to date news & daily actions, like our page on Facebook and check in often. Make sure to follow and retweet us on Twitter, follow us on Instagram, and add us to your email contacts!

Indivisible Evanston Mission Statement

The mission of Indivisible Evanston is to resist Donald Trump, his administration, and like-minded Members of Congress, and to remove them all from office on November 3, 2020, before they replace our democracy with an authoritarian plutocracy. We do not expect our members or allies to agree on all issues, but we invite those who agree that the Trump presidency is harming our country to work together to replace him and his GOP enablers. We seek to be as inclusive and diverse as possible, and we are committed to non-violence in all our actions.
CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER, LINKS TO ACTIONS & OUR LATEST NEWS
www.indivisibleevanston.com
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