Next Sunday afternoon we will host all six candidates (virtually, of course) for City Council District 1, where term limits create an open seat in 2021.
City Council District 1 GSD CANDIDATE FORUM AND ENDORSEMENT MEETING
Sunday, November 15, 2:00 – 5:00 pm Register: grandstreetdems.nyc/zoom-2020-11-15
Please set aside 2:00 – 5:00 pm so that we can give this important local race the attention it deserves. Each candidate will have 20 minutes to answer your questions — for six candidates, that will take two full hours. After that, we want GSD members to have a chance to discuss their choices and make the case for their preferred candidate before we VOTE on our club’s endorsement.
Celebrating this afternoon with my friend and fellow District Leader, Daisy Paez.
It is indescribably welcome to feel JOY. Joe Biden is the President-elect, Kamala Harris is the history-making Vice President-elect, by virtue of the countless individuals on the ground who made it happen. When Wisconsin was called for Biden, Ben Wikler, Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, tweeted out that “Everything mattered.” How true.
The margins of victory were decisive but hardly a landslide, and all the Get Out the Vote efforts for Biden-Harris were crucial. Not just everything, but everyONE mattered.
If you joined any of our phone banks over the last three months, this means you.
If you worked at the polls — for the first time or the fourteenth time — this means you.
If you helped one person register to vote, find their poll site or ballot drop box, this means you.
If you had one difficult conversation with a Republican in your life, and flipped their vote, this means you.
If you contributed $5 or $500 to the Biden-Harris campaign, this means you.
Today let’s celebrate!
Hold onto the feeling of effort being rewarded, because (you knew this was coming, right?) we still have work to do.
Our well-trained club is going to dive into the Georgia Senate run-offs this week. We will follow the lead of the incomparable, awesome Stacey Abrams and all the Georgia organizers who have scaled a vertiginous mountain of voter disenfranchisement to get their state this far.
When Trump won in 2016, my friend Amy said “We lost the keys to the house.” The house is in terrible shape, repairing the damage will be arduous, and many of its rightful inhabitants are still being denied occupancy, but we got the keys back, so let the renovations begin.
Stay safe, wear your mask, celebrate, then organize.
The problems surrounding voting in the June 23 primary are now well-documented, especially for absentee voters. Some absentee ballots were never mailed out or not received in time; the instructions for returning the ballot were poorly marked on the return envelope; since postage was not required, postmarks were not applied by the USPS, meaning many ballots were invalidated because it could not be determined that they were mailed on time.
The State Legislature has passed some significant changes to election law over the past two years, but if the NYC Board of Elections can’t keep up with these changes then voters will be disenfranchised. We learned recently from State Senator Liz Krueger that the State BOE has drafted a package of recommendations for the City BOE to implement, but the City BOE has refused to meet to even consider these recommendations.
In advance of a hearing today with the NY Assembly and Senate, Grand Street Dems co-signed submitted testimony urging reform and improvement ahead of November’s important general election.
