Dec 21, 20206 min read

Newsletter December 21-27, 2020

>>> Weekly News & Actions <<< December 21-27, 2020

Stay Home - Be Merry - Save Lives... and take back the Senate!

We all want to be together with friends and extended family during the holidays. But, if we want to protect the ones we love, as well as to keep our hospitals and health care workers from being even more overwhelmed than they already are, we all have to avoid risky situations this year — and that includes the travels and gatherings we hold dear. We are thinking of all our members, and hope you are staying safe and healthy at this challenging time. And while we know the next few months are going to be tough, we know things will start to get better when Biden and Harris take office in January. IDPH recommends that residents stay home as much as possible and only leave for essential activities. Read More Here. And we've got lots of things to keep you busy over the next month or so -- so stay home and help Democrats win the Georgia Senate runoffs and turn the Senate blue again!

Time named Biden-Harris as their "Person" of the Year. Word is the Donald wasn't too pleased.

Over the past few weeks, we've seen a flurry of announcements from the Biden-Harris team with their picks for key administration positions. Recently, the Office of the President Elect named its nominees and appointees involving climate issues - to advance Biden's agenda to confront the climate crisis - creating good-paying jobs, building resilient communities, and making historic investments in environmental justice.

Next Monthly Zoom Meeting: Jan 19th, 2021 Topic: The Rural-Urban Divide - What It Is and How Can We Bridge It. Sign up here. (No December Meeting) It's been a long and ultimately productive 4 years working to get Donald Trump out of office. We'll be taking a break in December and resume our monthly meetings January 19th, the day before Joe Biden's inauguration as the 46th president. Register in advance for our 1/19 meeting here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting Missed our November 17th meeting? Click HERE to watch a replay! We celebrated of all of YOUR accomplishments and heard what's next for Indivisible Evanston, including how we to support the GA Senate races. Thanks again to all our speakers!

Sign up here for IE Jan 19th Zoom Meeting, 7 - 9pm

Georgia Senate Runoff Races Support Democrats Jon Ossoff & Reverend Raphael Warnock NEW! Over the wi-fi and through the zoom to Georgia we will go...SIGN UP HERE with Indivisible Chicago/Evanston Phone Banks!

The Jan 5 GA Senate Runoff Election is just a few days away. We're getting the Band Back together again... The Indivisible Chicago phone bank leadership team has set up five new GA phone bank shifts: Mon/Wed 12/21 & 23 and 12/28 & 30, 5-7pm. Sign up here for Indivisible Chicago/Evanston Georgia Phone Banks!

Same leaders, same high-touch training & support as those we ran for the Presidential race. All that’s missing is YOU!
Backstory: Just a few days ago, the manager of phone banks for the Georgia Coordinated Campaign reached out for help from the Indivisible Chicago team, telling us an initial surge of volunteers has tapered off. They’re getting through only about 20% of their phone bank lists. RIGHT NOW, they need our help calling voters who haven’t turned in their absentee ballots as well as thousands of Early Voters who have new polling places assigned since they voted in November by GOP planners trying to thwart their voting rights.

Hope to see you soon on zoom! Marj, Mike, Kathy, Kathleen, Bill, and the entire Indivisible Chicago phone bank team P.S. Our times not good for you? Sign up directly with the Coordinated Campaign for the times that work best for you. Phone banks are open daily 9am-7pm Central.

Bilingual caller? Your help is needed to target Latinx voters. Join the coordinated campaign phone banks Tuesdays and Saturdays, por favor: Sign up here to target Latinx voters .

Support on-the-ground partners getting out the vote. You can also support the candidates directly. Take Action - Donations:

Raphael Warnock, Jon Ossoff, & Fair Fight: donations will be split evenly between Warnock, Ossoff, and Fair Fight (Stacey Abrams' organization that's registered over 800K voters since 2018.) You can also customize your donation to each.
New Georgia Project: Focused on engaging and registering new voters across GA.
Black Voters Matter: Focused on increasing voter registration and voter turnout.
Movement Georgia's Voters Fund Your donation goes to 13+ grassroots organizations that are on the ground and already working hard. These groups are “in their communities for the long haul, not one-off campaigns that come and go each cycle. These groups are the most effective messengers for voter registration and mobilization because of the local community building, issue organizing, and advocacy they focus on year-round.”

Take Action - Phone Banking:

Fair Fight - Stacy Abrams: mandatory training sessions required: Sign up for training. Then: Sign up to phone bank.
People's Action to Win GA: make “deep canvassing” phone calls. Sign up for a shift that'll include training on "deep canvassing " -- typically a way of having conversations with voters by making a personal connection over shared values.

Take Action - Text Banking:

Fair Fight: mandatory training sessions required: Sign up here for training. Then: Sign up for text banks.
Open Progress - Text Troop: training and materials available online. SIGN UP
Resistance Labs: training and materials available online. SIGN UP.

Sign UP: Write Postcards & Letters to GA Voters: see below.

Follow the Campaigns:

Warnock for Georgia: get involved with #TeamWarnock - Sign up
Jon Ossoff for Senate: Learn more here.

Phone Bank with Indivisible Chicago/Evanston to GA!

UPDATE: ALL 185,000 of IE's postcards have been assigned. Thank you to all our wonderful postcarders for signing up!

HOWEVER, FEAR NOT: If you are still interested in writing postcards, there is still one option available to get more:

Indivisible Chicago: order your postcards here for local pickup in Chicago (Chicagoland only, no shipping)
Hinsdale: Pick up from Postcards to Swing States' Reid McCollum at 715 S Bodin St in Hinsdale. Self-service pickup anytime while supplies last.
Note: Postcards to Swing States is also sold out for online orders.

How does it work?

The postcards, name and addresses, and message will be supplied by IE.
You supply the postage and mail them yourself.
These postcards will remind Georgia voters of the election and urge them to vote for Warnock and Ossoff, both Democrats.
NEW: Note: Georgia postcards must be mailed BY YOU on December 23 - 26! (NOT 26, 27, or 28) -. If you don't want to go to the post office to buy stamps, you can order them directly from the USPS here.

Write Letters to Georgia Voters

Another way you can help Democrats win in Georgia on January 5th is to write letters to Georgia voters for the runoff elections with Vote Forward.If you've previously signed up and written letters with Vote Forward, you can just go to the website and choose your voters. If you're new to Vote Forward, you'll need to sign up on their website.

How to get started: you'll need a printer, paper, envelopes, pen, and first-class letter stamps. You'll print out, personalize, stamp, and mail your own letters. See these links forthe detailsandmessaging guidelines for the GA project. Go hereto sign up and to get going!

The Economy Does Better Under Democrats: Spread the Word!

Karl Faultisch and David Doney from another Chicagoland group, NWSOFA, gave a great presentation recently to IL Indivisible leaders, showing that in reality the economy does better under Democratic presidents than Republicans. View the presentation HERE. This group has meetings monthly to discuss economic policy issues.

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 has been working hard to win back the White House, the Senate, Wisconsin and to keep our gains in the House and here in Illinois. And we accomplished SO MANY of our goals....especially the YUGE one! #BYEDON And we can finish the job by winning the two Senate runoff races in January! 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

December

Happy Holidays! Stay home, stay safe and healthy!
Multiple dates: text and phone banking for GA (links above)
23, 28, 30: Phone Bank to GA with Indivisible Chicago/Evanston: Sign up here.
23-26: Mail your Postcards to GA Voters! Note new dates!