Protect the Results Rally
On the afternoon of the day after the election (November 4), Members of UUCC and ally organizations helped the local Protect The Results (PTR) team organize a social-distanced, non-violent rally in Symphony Woods, Columbia. Many UUCC members attended the rally and carried signs encouraging officials to count every vote.
UU The Vote Sunday Worship
At a Sunday service on October 4, 2020, using resources from the national UU the Vote organizers, as well as personal reflections from our UUCC the Vote team, UUCC celebrated the democratic process within our congregation, nation, and the world, and inspired and challenged ourselves to act on our principles, not only in completing our own ballots, but also in the work leading up to November 3. The service featured this poem.
UUCC the Vote Mini-Forum
After this Sunday’s worship service (Oct 4), at about 11:15 am, at a mini forum, our UUCC the Vote team gave three brief 3-minute presentations and then answered your questions regarding:
- Maryland registration and Mail-In ballots,
- Phone and text banking volunteering made easy,
- Urgent election day needs for poll workers and poll watchers,
- Howard County Board of Education candidates (panel discussion), and,
- Any other non-partisan voter related questions you may have!
Green New Deal
Understanding the Green New Deal. Owen Brown resident and leader of Our Revolution Howard County, Paul Baicich, will present a Zoom forum at 7:30pm on Monday, September 28 in response to multiple requests about better understanding the “Green New Deal.” There are multiple versions of a Green New Deal, but they all focus on climate, jobs, and equity. The presentation will start by describing the “original” Green New Deal (also known as the AOC or AOC/Markey Green New Deal, or HR109 and S.Res.59). We will then compare and contrast HR109 to the Climate Policy elements from the Biden/Sanders Unity Task Force. For more information, click here.
Reclaim Our Vote
The NAACP’s Reclaim Our Vote campaign has now targeted districts in Texas where there have been egregious voter suppression efforts. You can sign up to write postcards (bilingual) to the affected voters to help prevent them from being purged from the voter rolls. The Texas due date is August 31! Contact gailholm@gmail.com. (A new postcard campaign for North Carolina will begin in late August.)
Our national UU The Vote team has partnered with Wisconsin Conservation Voices to try to prevent the purging of 129,000 voters there. Volunteer to phone bank beginning September 2, and continuing bi-weekly, to reach out to the at-risk voters. Contact Melanie at melaniemilner@yahoo.com or the UU organizer in Wisconsin, Nora at NRasman@uua.org.
Vote Forward
We have teamed with Vote Forward to write letters to registered voters that will be delivered in late October to remind and encourage them to vote (GOTV). You can download and prepare the letters now, and hold them until October to be mailed. The letter writing campaigns are focused on traditionally underrepresented registered voters in the states that will be most critical in the election. Contact Ken Rock at krockster@yahoo.com, or get instructions from https://votefwd.org/.
Text voters in Pennsylvania with CASA: Our partners at CASA are reaching out to voters in underserved, underrepresented parts of Pennsylvania and helping them register to vote and they are having great results reaching voters by text.
Our national UU The Vote team has partnered with Wisconsin Conservation Voices to try to prevent the purging of 129,000 voters there. Volunteer to phone bank on September 30 to reach out to the at-risk voters. Contact Melanie at melaniemilner@yahoo.com or the UU organizer in Wisconsin, Nora at NRasman@uua.org .
Check out “ISSUE ADVOCACY” for partner organizations doing elections work and issue advocacy for various social justice causes.
Postcards
We sent 9,000+ Reclaim Our Vote postcards to North Carolina, Texas and Georgia
USPS
The threats to the US Postal Service is the newest attack in a series of decades-long strategies to suppress the vote. That’s why the Unitarian Universalist Association is calling for the resignation of the U.S. Postmaster General, General Louis DeJoy.
Contact Colleges
Contact college(s) you care about to and ask them to commit to pandemic-proof plan for full student civic participation – starting with registration. A sample letter is provided by Ask Your College at uusj.net/wp1/ask-your-college for you to email. This takes only 15 minutes! For questions, contact laurie.alderman6@gmail.com.
Phone Banks
Texting voters in Pennsylvania with CASA: Our partners at CASA are reaching out to voters in underserved, underrepresented parts of Pennsylvania and helping them register to vote and they are having great results reaching voters by text. Sign up to text bank here.
Maryland Activism July 2020
- Call Governor Hogan at 410-974-3901 and tell him to switch to a mail-in-preferred election. Ask him to reconsider his vote by mail plan, which sends an application, rather than a ballot, to registered voters. We need everybody to call the Governor’s office and their representatives in Annapolis before August 10. For more information, visit the Get Money Out Maryland website.
- Call Senators Van Hollen and Cardin. A critical item for COVID relief is support for the states to prepare for the 2020 election. Without $3.6 billion in federal aid, local elections boards may not be able to provide safe and secure voting. Call Sen. Van Hollen (202) 224-4654 and Sen. Cardin (202) 224-4524. You can check UUSJ here for background and talking points.
- “Wrongful Convictions: Fixing America’s Failed Judgment” was sponsored by The Village in Howard on September 9, 2020. Bill Proctor, an award-winning veteran reporter at WXYZ-TV in Detroit, Michigan, spoke about our criminal justice system. Get more information.
National Vote By Mail Day
Tuesday, July 28, is National Vote By Mail Day. The Reeb Project and UUSJ are partnering with NextGen Virginia on a series of phone and text banks to call voters across Virginia. We will be helping new voters register to vote, and vote by mail. Click here for links to phone and text banks.
UUCC the Vote Launch
Let’s make our UU values heard in the 2020 elections! Are you angry or feeling helpless about current events and political discourse? Do you feel public policy is going in the wrong direction, and/or doesn’t represent your values and commitment to social justice?
More than 80 people participated as the UUCC the Vote effort was launched on June 16, 2020, and learned about concrete and effective voter registration, mobilization and anti-voter-suppression projects. See Presentation Here
UU The Vote Sunday Service
UUCC’s Sunday service on June 14, 2020, was dedicated to a UU The Vote theme.
Annual Meeting
On June 7, 2020, UUCC held its Annual Meeting. Democracy starts at home!
Voter Registration & Mobilization Team
We held an initial planning meeting (via Zoom) for the UUCC The Vote: Voter Registration & Mobilization Team. We discussed many ideas on how to increase voter registration and turnout in our current virtual world. We will select the best of those ideas and present them to the congregation at the Launch on June 16. If you would like to participate in the planning process, please contact UUCCTheVote@gmail.com . May 28, 2020
Organizing Meeting
UU the Vote! Let’s make our UU values heard in the 2020 elections! On Thursday, May 14 , we met via Zoom and briefly described the UUA construct, and then turned our focus to new ideas and where UUCC’s energy was strongest. UU the Vote has the potential to be of value to virtually every social justice cause within UUCC. UUA’s UU the Vote introduction says:
The 2020 national elections are perhaps more important than any other in living memory. Without stopping the harms caused by the rise of authoritarianism and fascism, progressive movements have little chance of any effectiveness for the next generation and beyond. Therefore, these 2020 elections are not another “issue area” competing for resources and volunteer time alongside a dozen others; they are a “movement moment” in themselves, and our ability to bring to bear the experience and fierce commitments of activists, organizers, and people of conscience who care deeply about a wide range of progressive causes will determine the future of the human species and the planet.
We welcome leaders, followers, occasional participants, and ideas. If you didn’t attend the May 14 meeting, but want to know when activities get planned, please email UUCCtheVote@gmail.com .
How We Thrive Meeting
On May 12, 2020, more than 1,100 UUs from around the country gathered online for our How We Thrive live event! UU the Vote continues to be a strong force for justice because we have folks like you doing what you can, when you can. Please watch and share the recording of the May 12 How We Thrive meeting with your congregations and networks.