This was incredibly inspiring and energizing -- thank you! I was also thrilled because a young man I've known since he was 3 years old is now the Deputy Executive Director for MeckDems, working with Drew, and I couldn't be prouder of him. One month to go!
Can you please pass this information on to your friend. Its from Board Chair of Verified Voting:
HOWEVER, Mecklenberg uses Ballot Marking Devices (BMDs) in their polling places. BMDs are computers that print out the voter's selections. Tests show that most voters don't check the paper ballot (i.e. printout), just as most shoppers don't check their supermarket receipts. Please advise election officials to have voters check their ballots.
Love to all… Robert and each of you as well have built a bridge of sanity and purpose in this wild time. May our most centered dreams come true this fall! Thank you!
Great interview! I sent a message to many politically active friends and to my monthly political women’s breakfast group to suggest they send donations. I sent one immediately. I wish I could get over my phobia of the auto dialer! I used to be a great phone banker! But I get super anxious when the next person pops on the line before I’m ready and organized to chat…so mostly these days I do phonebanking for the Wisdems Voter Protection group, trying to find poll workers and poll observers, which uses the old fashioned kind of phonebanking where you make the calls yourself. i realize that that method is way less efficient because of all the « not homes » one reaches, but I like the feeling of being in control of when I’m making the call and getting ready to talk. Perhaps if I had an experienced auto dialer phone banker come over to my house and give me some coaching, I could get past this impediment! In the meantime, I do a lot of door knocking in Kenosha, WI, about an hour and 15 min from my home in IL, as well as postcarding and VPB phonebanking.
Wow, Nancy, you are doing so much including door knocking and nothing beats that one-on-one interaction.The auto dialer does have kind of a surreal feel. I would say you’re very efficient at GOTV!
I am so impressed with Drew Kromer from Mechlenburg County in North Carolina! What he has already done for the Democratic Party there is amazing! Thank you, Robert, for having him speak to us. If we could just get every Democrat and Independent as well as those Republicans who do not like Trump to vote this year, we can easily win this thing!
Chris and I were also very impressed. Sent money. We are postcarding as well. Please everyone check out this video Robert has re-posted, if you have not seen it already. Inspirational and convincing for understanding that the Blue Wave may come not come from a broad tsunami, but from many different intense fire hoses of energy, money, and passion flowing through places like Charlotte (Mecklenburg County). We are near the end of this race, it's now time to turn on all we got, targeted and focused for the most leverage. Thank you Robert for reporting on Drew's response. Too seldom do we see the effect of our giving, actions, and work. So impressed with all of you who are doing so much.
Agreed: it is so nice to hear that what we're doing makes a difference to Drew and his cohorts! How wonderful that 88 people volunteered after watching the video! And how wonderful that MA raised $40K for their efforts! "We are in this together!"
NC info: Registration deadline for the General Presidential Election on November 5, 2024 is October 11, 2024 (see one-stop early voting info below).
Absentee ballot application deadline for the General Presidential Election is October 29, 2024.
October 17, 2024 through November 2, 2024 at 3pm is the early voting period for the November 5, 2024 General Presidential Election. Check for early voting sites and schedules here.
Can also register and vote at the same time with one-stop early voting (October 17 - November 2 at 3pm). There is no same day registration on Election Day.
If you need help getting an ID, contact VoteRiders.org or call/text 1-844-338-8743.
FT6 texted into NC yesterday. More today. Vote Vets bus in Fayetteville.
I've participated on the Sunday phonebank. It is mostly out of state people calling - the same group Drew referenced in the video that recruited people to come to a Democratic social events in Meck County.
This is the phonebank that Drew mentioned in his interview. It is the one that did the 10,000 calls to help flip Huntersville. We would be delighted to have you join us Sundays 6-8p ET.
I wish to volunteer for phone calling and I'll send a check, and I'm with you in that I need a true and legit link to get on board with this wish to join the Mecklenburg team. When and if you have the links please let me know?
Fantastic video - so inspiring. I’ve donated today - having done so in the past but not recently. I’m forwarding this to my almost 100 family/friends network- and hope they will be inspired too. Huge thanks to you and Jess for keeping us informed - and keeping Mecklenburg at the front of our efforts .
Robert, thank you for all that you do. If there is another critical county in a critical state, with a robust grassroots effort, please let us know. With gratitude.
Drew Kromer is not only an organized and focused Dem party leader but is inspirational. I did donate and may add phone banking for MeckDems to the PA and AZ I do now. Between Anderson and Drew we can’t miss in NC. Drew illustrated clearly the power of GOTV. We’ve got the numbers, we just need to turn them out!
I was also inspired to donate but I continue to be astonished that any democrat needs any encouragement to vote in this time. I once heard a likely disingenuous voter complain that since Hillary Clinton didn’t bother to come to her town to campaign but Trump did, she voted for Trump. That is absurd criteria for selecting a president, especially given the clear character disparity between the two candidates.
Kathy, I think you just answered your own astonished question. People, even Democrats, vote or don't vote, not because they're concerned about losing our democracy which they should be but aren't, but because they're engrossed in their own little lives and are complacent about having a free democracy to live in and nothing can penetrate their clouds. They blithely "feel" that the free America we have constructed with blood, sweat, and tears over 240 years will just automatically continue to exist and they will have the benefit of living in it. Voting may not fit into their gym schedule or having to pick up the kids or get their nails done. Or they may vote for some idiosyncratic, personal issue that has nothing to do with what's going on--vaccines, or fracking, or some endangered fish...because that's Top-of-List in their entitled worlds. I'm knocking on doors and exasperated with what I find behind them. I can't tell them democracy is at stake, because if I do, they think I'm exaggerating or they don't believe me. These famous undecideds/non-voters are not paying attention, and they're certainly not thinking.
Kathy: ARGH! But some people do have really absurd reasons for voting for specific candidates. I seem to recall that Reagan got a lot of women's votes "because he was handsome." Again: ARGH!
Absurd reasons explain a lot of unthinking voters who vote for Trump: "I liked his TV show." "He's so rich." "He reminds me of my father/grandfather." "He's a working-class guy like me." Seriously, a man in PA is on record as saying that last one.
I was so impressed that the message was to come socialize people and then create a community in the county. I am hoping that Mechlenburg will serve as an example program to other
counties and states for the future! And yes, I did donate.
I'm one of the Mecklenburg Co. residents that got activated to local politics by an invitation to a Meck Dems social event. I was already writing postcards and Vote Forward letters on my own and over Zoom (starting during Covid), but I didn't really have the close personal connections that I do now with Democrats in my area. Our area is pretty active and I try and attend the continued social events as my schedule permits to make even more connections.
I have personally recruited several people I have met through the group and at candidate campaign events to become poll observers for the upcoming election. Just knowing someone who has already done a particular volunteer job makes it less intimidating. If you do some volunteer activity be sure and invite your friends to join you!! Sometimes a little nudge is all it takes!
I'm pretty sure I am on "speed dial" with both my precinct captain and the area postcard coordinator (whose house is also the launch site for weekend canvasses). She's a wonder of logistics - we have distributed over 150K postcards (including 100K Postcards to Swing States) to volunteers via plastic totes on various volunteers' front porches at strategic locations around the county!
Pro tip: if you need to rebundle thousands of postcards into individual packets of 25, 50 or 100 for distribution, hand count out a couple of bundles and weigh them on a kitchen scale then use the scale to divide the rest.
I just read that Musk appeared with Trump at his rally yesterday and told everyone that Trump will save democracy, without Trump winning, this will be the last election. The richest man in the world is not tethered to reality! Good grief. I am in shock.
Musk and Trump are following the SBP (standard bully playbook). Your opponent (victim) says that you are a tyrant, then the go-to course for you is to turn around and say you are a tyrant. Trump saying repeatedly, "You are going to lose this country," because that risk is what we are saying about him. He calls America a lost country, then say that only he can save it. We say, "You are taking away women's rights." He says, "No, I am protecting them." We say, "You are against the Constitution and won't agree to honor the election." J.D? Vance says, "Harris is censoring what we can say on social media! Freedom of speech." Every point gets repeated with anger and higher emotional decibels.
I had a depressing exchange with a couple of people after I praised Bruce Springsteen's video endorsement on a YouTube discussion. They called Bruce all kinds of names, and one ended by saying he is voting for Trump because, "I like his policies!!!!!!" No details given. Trump gives people permission to be full of anger, hate, and resentment and hate is an easier emotion than love and caring or even joy. Harris and Walz better hit hard on the dangers of Project 2025 and the evil that will befall us if Trump is elected. Pointing out inconsistencies in the behavior and action and beliefs of Trump's supporters only reaches the fringes. And here in deep red Indiana, all the Republicans have to do is label every Democrat as a "liberal," that is the equivalent term to "Commie" in the 1950s.
I am nauseated by the MAGA people taking everything illegal they are doing, and accusing Harris of doing it. It's TRUMP who said this will be the last election "when he wins," not Harris. Trump is now accusing Harris of "taking money from FEMA and giving it to immigrants," when it is he that did that--he took FEMA money as president and used it to build detention centers "for" immigrants. Whatever the media hesitantly raises to criticize Trump, he and his MAGAts take and immediately blame and accuse Harris of doing. Nauseating. They are using Steve Bannon's tactic of "flooding the zone with s**t" so that voters hear about some wrongdoing, but are completely unsure if Trump did it or Harris did it. Voters are confused, and default to their unexamined original voting intention. Which is too often Trump. They are muddying the airwaves and obfuscating reality with record amounts of bloviation to the point where few can tell what's real. It's like trying to find your way to a destination in a thick cloud of fog.
Thank you Robert for posting the Mecklenburg video. I donated. I have cousins in Chapel Hill and a friend in Asheville who is still cut off from getting out of her place. Prayers for the people of North Carolina and I hope the state government is able to provide them all with a way to vote!
I'm so damn happy to be a part of this community. Can't thank you all enough. I'm headed to PA next week from MA to door-knock, and I'll take each and every one of you along. ❤️
Wonderful news about the MeckDems! I watched the video and agree that we should try to get it shared as much as we can.
The Heart Nebula image is gorgeous! thank you for sharing your images with us. I might've said it already but I do look forward to those at the end of every newsletter; such beauty in the stars is a balm to the eyes and our souls.
Hi, All. See the links in yesterday's newsletter to donate or volunteer for MeckDems. Thanks!
https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/mecklenburg-county-north-carolina
This was incredibly inspiring and energizing -- thank you! I was also thrilled because a young man I've known since he was 3 years old is now the Deputy Executive Director for MeckDems, working with Drew, and I couldn't be prouder of him. One month to go!
Can you please pass this information on to your friend. Its from Board Chair of Verified Voting:
HOWEVER, Mecklenberg uses Ballot Marking Devices (BMDs) in their polling places. BMDs are computers that print out the voter's selections. Tests show that most voters don't check the paper ballot (i.e. printout), just as most shoppers don't check their supermarket receipts. Please advise election officials to have voters check their ballots.
I suspect they know this but will email him!
Love to all… Robert and each of you as well have built a bridge of sanity and purpose in this wild time. May our most centered dreams come true this fall! Thank you!
Great interview! I sent a message to many politically active friends and to my monthly political women’s breakfast group to suggest they send donations. I sent one immediately. I wish I could get over my phobia of the auto dialer! I used to be a great phone banker! But I get super anxious when the next person pops on the line before I’m ready and organized to chat…so mostly these days I do phonebanking for the Wisdems Voter Protection group, trying to find poll workers and poll observers, which uses the old fashioned kind of phonebanking where you make the calls yourself. i realize that that method is way less efficient because of all the « not homes » one reaches, but I like the feeling of being in control of when I’m making the call and getting ready to talk. Perhaps if I had an experienced auto dialer phone banker come over to my house and give me some coaching, I could get past this impediment! In the meantime, I do a lot of door knocking in Kenosha, WI, about an hour and 15 min from my home in IL, as well as postcarding and VPB phonebanking.
Wow, Nancy, you are doing so much including door knocking and nothing beats that one-on-one interaction.The auto dialer does have kind of a surreal feel. I would say you’re very efficient at GOTV!
💙
I am so impressed with Drew Kromer from Mechlenburg County in North Carolina! What he has already done for the Democratic Party there is amazing! Thank you, Robert, for having him speak to us. If we could just get every Democrat and Independent as well as those Republicans who do not like Trump to vote this year, we can easily win this thing!
Chris and I were also very impressed. Sent money. We are postcarding as well. Please everyone check out this video Robert has re-posted, if you have not seen it already. Inspirational and convincing for understanding that the Blue Wave may come not come from a broad tsunami, but from many different intense fire hoses of energy, money, and passion flowing through places like Charlotte (Mecklenburg County). We are near the end of this race, it's now time to turn on all we got, targeted and focused for the most leverage. Thank you Robert for reporting on Drew's response. Too seldom do we see the effect of our giving, actions, and work. So impressed with all of you who are doing so much.
Agreed: it is so nice to hear that what we're doing makes a difference to Drew and his cohorts! How wonderful that 88 people volunteered after watching the video! And how wonderful that MA raised $40K for their efforts! "We are in this together!"
I will phone bank for Mecklenburg.
I am in Northern California or I would knock on doors for you.
I have phone banked before over 1,000 phone calls.
Just have to find contact number‼️
https://www.mobilize.us/ncdems/
NC info: Registration deadline for the General Presidential Election on November 5, 2024 is October 11, 2024 (see one-stop early voting info below).
Absentee ballot application deadline for the General Presidential Election is October 29, 2024.
October 17, 2024 through November 2, 2024 at 3pm is the early voting period for the November 5, 2024 General Presidential Election. Check for early voting sites and schedules here.
Can also register and vote at the same time with one-stop early voting (October 17 - November 2 at 3pm). There is no same day registration on Election Day.
If you need help getting an ID, contact VoteRiders.org or call/text 1-844-338-8743.
FT6 texted into NC yesterday. More today. Vote Vets bus in Fayetteville.
Here's a Thursday evening weekly phonebank to Mecklenburg County Democrats to recruit volunteere to canvass:
https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/630114/
Here's the Sunday evening weekly phonebank Mecklenburg County Democrats to recruit volunteere to canvass:
https://www.mobilize.us/swingbluealliance/event/569199/
I've participated on the Sunday phonebank. It is mostly out of state people calling - the same group Drew referenced in the video that recruited people to come to a Democratic social events in Meck County.
https://www.mobilize.us/swingbluealliance/event/569199/
This is the phonebank that Drew mentioned in his interview. It is the one that did the 10,000 calls to help flip Huntersville. We would be delighted to have you join us Sundays 6-8p ET.
And here is a Wednesday 6-8p ET sibling phonebank that also calls into Mecklenburg https://www.mobilize.us/swingbluealliance/event/612057/
I just donated, but had to hunt around a bit to find the donation link. Robert, perhaps you should add those links to this page as well.
Where did you find it? I need to get my donation in before bed, or I won't sleep well, lol. What an inspiring video!!
Here’s the donation link for the Mecklenburg Dems:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/darkblue
Thank you! I will also donate.
THANK YOU JUST SAW THIS. SAUNDRA
I also posted the link to volunteer. Did you see that too?
No?
Here’s the link to volunteer for the Mecklenburg Dems: https://oos.meckdems.org/
Thank you, Abbi, I just gave them $100. We are an amazing country!
Thank you so much. I always appreciate a link!
The link is easy to find in yesterday’s (Saturday’s) newsletter.
Yes, it’s a simple link in blue.
I wish to volunteer for phone calling and I'll send a check, and I'm with you in that I need a true and legit link to get on board with this wish to join the Mecklenburg team. When and if you have the links please let me know?
Here’s the link to volunteer for the Mecklenburg Dems: https://oos.meckdems.org/
phonebanking link: https://www.mobilize.us/mecklenburgcountydems/event/718306/?referring_vol=2058019&rname=diane×lot=4934068&referring_participation=31495448&referring_data_signature=v1-8d61f0221718b7fb&share_medium=copy_link&share_context=signup-form-modal
I too would like to volunteer for the Mecklenburg team and contribute. let me know please if you find the link. Saundra
phonebank link: https://www.mobilize.us/mecklenburgcountydems/event/718306/?referring_vol=2058019&rname=diane×lot=4934068&referring_participation=31495448&referring_data_signature=v1-8d61f0221718b7fb&share_medium=copy_link&share_context=signup-form-modal
Hi Saundra, Another Hubbell follower guided me to Saturday's dispatch where there is a link at the end.
Fantastic video - so inspiring. I’ve donated today - having done so in the past but not recently. I’m forwarding this to my almost 100 family/friends network- and hope they will be inspired too. Huge thanks to you and Jess for keeping us informed - and keeping Mecklenburg at the front of our efforts .
Robert, thank you for all that you do. If there is another critical county in a critical state, with a robust grassroots effort, please let us know. With gratitude.
Amen. Time to target carefully.
I HONOR AND THANK YOU FOR YOuR DEDICATED HARD WORK AND TIME SPENT .
BUILDING COMMUNITY, INSPIRING AS A ROLE MODEL, CALMING US AND GIVING US SOMETHING USEFUL TO DO!!
You're the greatest patriot. ❤️
Drew Kromer is not only an organized and focused Dem party leader but is inspirational. I did donate and may add phone banking for MeckDems to the PA and AZ I do now. Between Anderson and Drew we can’t miss in NC. Drew illustrated clearly the power of GOTV. We’ve got the numbers, we just need to turn them out!
I was also inspired to donate but I continue to be astonished that any democrat needs any encouragement to vote in this time. I once heard a likely disingenuous voter complain that since Hillary Clinton didn’t bother to come to her town to campaign but Trump did, she voted for Trump. That is absurd criteria for selecting a president, especially given the clear character disparity between the two candidates.
Kathy, I think you just answered your own astonished question. People, even Democrats, vote or don't vote, not because they're concerned about losing our democracy which they should be but aren't, but because they're engrossed in their own little lives and are complacent about having a free democracy to live in and nothing can penetrate their clouds. They blithely "feel" that the free America we have constructed with blood, sweat, and tears over 240 years will just automatically continue to exist and they will have the benefit of living in it. Voting may not fit into their gym schedule or having to pick up the kids or get their nails done. Or they may vote for some idiosyncratic, personal issue that has nothing to do with what's going on--vaccines, or fracking, or some endangered fish...because that's Top-of-List in their entitled worlds. I'm knocking on doors and exasperated with what I find behind them. I can't tell them democracy is at stake, because if I do, they think I'm exaggerating or they don't believe me. These famous undecideds/non-voters are not paying attention, and they're certainly not thinking.
Kathy: ARGH! But some people do have really absurd reasons for voting for specific candidates. I seem to recall that Reagan got a lot of women's votes "because he was handsome." Again: ARGH!
Absurd reasons explain a lot of unthinking voters who vote for Trump: "I liked his TV show." "He's so rich." "He reminds me of my father/grandfather." "He's a working-class guy like me." Seriously, a man in PA is on record as saying that last one.
I was so impressed that the message was to come socialize people and then create a community in the county. I am hoping that Mechlenburg will serve as an example program to other
counties and states for the future! And yes, I did donate.
I'm one of the Mecklenburg Co. residents that got activated to local politics by an invitation to a Meck Dems social event. I was already writing postcards and Vote Forward letters on my own and over Zoom (starting during Covid), but I didn't really have the close personal connections that I do now with Democrats in my area. Our area is pretty active and I try and attend the continued social events as my schedule permits to make even more connections.
I have personally recruited several people I have met through the group and at candidate campaign events to become poll observers for the upcoming election. Just knowing someone who has already done a particular volunteer job makes it less intimidating. If you do some volunteer activity be sure and invite your friends to join you!! Sometimes a little nudge is all it takes!
I'm pretty sure I am on "speed dial" with both my precinct captain and the area postcard coordinator (whose house is also the launch site for weekend canvasses). She's a wonder of logistics - we have distributed over 150K postcards (including 100K Postcards to Swing States) to volunteers via plastic totes on various volunteers' front porches at strategic locations around the county!
Pro tip: if you need to rebundle thousands of postcards into individual packets of 25, 50 or 100 for distribution, hand count out a couple of bundles and weigh them on a kitchen scale then use the scale to divide the rest.
You rock! I love Drew's idea of building community!
Thanks!
I just read that Musk appeared with Trump at his rally yesterday and told everyone that Trump will save democracy, without Trump winning, this will be the last election. The richest man in the world is not tethered to reality! Good grief. I am in shock.
Musk and Trump are following the SBP (standard bully playbook). Your opponent (victim) says that you are a tyrant, then the go-to course for you is to turn around and say you are a tyrant. Trump saying repeatedly, "You are going to lose this country," because that risk is what we are saying about him. He calls America a lost country, then say that only he can save it. We say, "You are taking away women's rights." He says, "No, I am protecting them." We say, "You are against the Constitution and won't agree to honor the election." J.D? Vance says, "Harris is censoring what we can say on social media! Freedom of speech." Every point gets repeated with anger and higher emotional decibels.
I had a depressing exchange with a couple of people after I praised Bruce Springsteen's video endorsement on a YouTube discussion. They called Bruce all kinds of names, and one ended by saying he is voting for Trump because, "I like his policies!!!!!!" No details given. Trump gives people permission to be full of anger, hate, and resentment and hate is an easier emotion than love and caring or even joy. Harris and Walz better hit hard on the dangers of Project 2025 and the evil that will befall us if Trump is elected. Pointing out inconsistencies in the behavior and action and beliefs of Trump's supporters only reaches the fringes. And here in deep red Indiana, all the Republicans have to do is label every Democrat as a "liberal," that is the equivalent term to "Commie" in the 1950s.
Hard to believe that people actually believe the hyperbole. Yet here we are.
I am nauseated by the MAGA people taking everything illegal they are doing, and accusing Harris of doing it. It's TRUMP who said this will be the last election "when he wins," not Harris. Trump is now accusing Harris of "taking money from FEMA and giving it to immigrants," when it is he that did that--he took FEMA money as president and used it to build detention centers "for" immigrants. Whatever the media hesitantly raises to criticize Trump, he and his MAGAts take and immediately blame and accuse Harris of doing. Nauseating. They are using Steve Bannon's tactic of "flooding the zone with s**t" so that voters hear about some wrongdoing, but are completely unsure if Trump did it or Harris did it. Voters are confused, and default to their unexamined original voting intention. Which is too often Trump. They are muddying the airwaves and obfuscating reality with record amounts of bloviation to the point where few can tell what's real. It's like trying to find your way to a destination in a thick cloud of fog.
We listened to the interview and were inspired to support Mecklenburg County from California! Thank you Robert!
Thank you Robert for posting the Mecklenburg video. I donated. I have cousins in Chapel Hill and a friend in Asheville who is still cut off from getting out of her place. Prayers for the people of North Carolina and I hope the state government is able to provide them all with a way to vote!
I'm so damn happy to be a part of this community. Can't thank you all enough. I'm headed to PA next week from MA to door-knock, and I'll take each and every one of you along. ❤️
Wonderful news about the MeckDems! I watched the video and agree that we should try to get it shared as much as we can.
The Heart Nebula image is gorgeous! thank you for sharing your images with us. I might've said it already but I do look forward to those at the end of every newsletter; such beauty in the stars is a balm to the eyes and our souls.