Stan Taylor: Let’s see the highest voter turnout in US history

Presenter: Local activists will encourage early voting this weekend, as the No Kings movement continues to move from protest to action. From the Community Action Network (CAN), Stan Taylor:

Stan Taylor (CAN): It’s billed as ‘No Kings: Vote Early.’ And it’s like that because they’re moving from rallies that are protests only, into events that are asking people to do something directly. And in this case, it’s vote and join election protection. So, it’s another step forward moving towards building the social movement that we need to build.

We talk about living in a democracy, but we actually live in a democratic republic. And of course, democratic means of the people, and that means that the way we can be most democratic is when most people vote for their representative, right? So, this is the way we make democracy happen in the United States, and it’s not inconsequential. And what we want to see is the highest voter turnout ever in the United States.

We were approached by Common Cause to do an election protection training. And when we were invited to do that, we reached out to other groups in the community that were working on election protection already and brought them together to cosponsor the event at the UU (Unitarian Universalist Church) that was a Common Cause election protection training.

And those organizations then began to talk about organizing more together as the Community Action Network, focused on the No Kings Vote Early for Oct. 17.

The six groups in CAN co-organizing and co-sponsoring the event at the City Hall No Kings Vote Early include: Indivisible Eugene Springfield; NAACP Eugene Springfield; United for Immigrant Justice; League of Women Voters Lane County; Friends Organizing for Racial Justice (formerly SURJ); 350 Eugene.

Presenter: We asked Stan Taylor from the Community Action Network to share some details about the election protection training.

Stan Taylor (CAN): Well, there are two roles that the Common Cause election protection has. One is called a trusted messenger, and the trusted messengers are people who will be notified by Common Cause and connected with the secretary of state to correct misinformation.

So when misinformation gets promoted into the community about voting or how hard it is to vote, the connection will be made to the secretary of state’s office, and the trusted messengers can then send information out to their networks in order to counter any misinformation.

So that’s the first role.

The second role is the ballot box monitors. And of course we want the ballot boxes to be safe. It requires or asks the ballot box monitors to observe the ballot boxes a couple of times an hour, maybe drive by a couple of times in the hour, or walk by a couple of times in an hour so that they can observe what’s going on.

And if something that is concerning is going on, then they can notify the appropriate people in order to have them come and deal with what’s happening. We’re not asking anybody to put themselves at risk in this process, but really to observe and to report.

The League of Women Voters, of course, is doing trainings on registration to vote. Registration to vote ends Oct. 13. They’re doing training for that—how to get people to register.

And then at the No Kings Vote Early event, they’ll have an action table there where people can come and check their voter registration to make sure that they are currently registered properly to vote.

And of course, the NAACP has been doing its own election work and are continuing to do so. They have their own program that’s working with their memberships, working very hard to get the vote out. So, they’re a natural ally for us.

The same for Friends Organizing for Racial Justice (formerly SURJ, Showing Up for Racial Justice). They also are heavily involved in election protection and getting that information out to their members. So there are organizations that are natural allies for this particular type of work.

Presenter: We asked if there were any specific threats from ICE against voters.

Stan Taylor (CAN): That’s a concern, but really, I think it’s much more of a concern in swing states where the close votes make it so that there’s more likely ICE agents to locate there and try to interrupt the elections.

It’s hard to imagine with the many, many ballot boxes in a place like Oregon and across the nation where similar kinds of voting practices exist, that they would have the ICE agents to really focus on the multitude of ballot boxes, drop boxes for a place like Oregon.

So that fear is lower here, which is not to minimize the fact that ICE is increasing their presence in the United States this last two months. They’ve had the highest rate of incarcerations, kidnappings since they started arresting and detaining folks. So, you know, we need to be on alert and to make sure we’re doing the right thing to protect our immigrant neighbors.

For example, in Eugene, we have a group called Rapid Response Lane County that observes the spot at the Federal Building where ICE vehicles are parked and observed when they come in and out to see if there’s somebody that’s being detained.

And they also have programs to get people involved with lawyers ahead of time so that if someone is picked up, they have legal counsel to file habeas corpus to get them released before they leave the state. So very important work that is being done and needs to continue to be done.

Presenter: There will be three separate No Kings Vote Early events in the area.

Stan Taylor (CAN): There’s the one sponsored by the Community Action Network, which will be at City Hall on Oct. 17 from 2 to 4 p.m., although the music will start at 1:30 p.m.

And there’s an event at Alton Baker Park that’s being organized by the Activist Coalition of Eugene Springfield. Its emphasis will be on more hands-on trainings, on what they’re calling a tailgating for democracy, because there’s a Ducks game that day.

So, they’ll be handing out information to people that are walking over to the Ducks game. Their event will be at Alton Baker Park starting at 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. People should check that out and then walk across the DeFazio Bridge over to City Hall and focus on the event there, which is really focused on early voting and election protection.

So, the focus at City Hall will be the election. At Alton Baker, there’ll be more hands-on training.

And then, of course, Indivisible has a third (event) out in Coburg, at the Coburg City Hall along Main Street. And that’s a community gathering to enjoy each other’s company, to promote voting early, and to engage in sign-waving there.

One of the things about this No Kings is it’s intended to be hyperlocal, which means that it’s not only large rallies that are being called for, but smaller types of gatherings as well. So, somebody could do a backyard barbecue or a block party or something like that and register their own event.

The idea is to reach into the community as deeply as you can and urge people to get out to vote early and to return their ballots to the ballot box in advance. And while it’s fine to mail your ballot, you need to do it at least seven days before Nov. 3.

And, if you haven’t received notice that your ballot has been received, you need to go into the county clerk’s office to get a second ballot that you can submit. One of the consequences of the Trump administration has been that as they’ve begun to dismantle large segments of the Post Office, so the Post Office is not as reliable as it has been historically, which makes it important to, if you can, to return your ballot to the ballot boxes.

Presenter: No Kings Vote Early events are scheduled this Saturday, Oct. 17, as activists are hoping for the highest voter turnout ever in the United States.

Register for No Kings Vote Early at: https://www.mobilize.us/nokings/event/1036411/