Bethel Defends Democracy: Continuing Our Push for Early Voting

10-24-26 Please join us for our 85th consecutive community rally to Defend Democracy in beautiful downtown Bethel. Our overall theme is Defending Democracy. Our theme this week is: Continuing Our Push for Early Voting (Tip: If viewing on facebook or mobilize, it is easier to read the full Bethel rally announcement with pictures here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R6w_Z1HRfc5u1XaXFZwN3Wb3KH2CVRtoL6_iBmw3Fxo/edit?usp=drivesdk Please don’t attend the rally if you cannot refrain from engaging with agitators. **************** Early Voting has started in CT and we came out in force!! “Democrats outnumbered Republicans by nearly a 4-1 margin at the polls Monday in the first of 14 days of early voting in Connecticut, the secretary of the state’s office reported Tuesday.” “...42,241 cast votes in person and another 23,170 cast absentee ballots by mail or at drop boxes.” You can see some of the details of the first day early in-person voting and absentee voting here: Early Voting and Absentee Ballot Totals as of October 19 https://share.google/EXxmJTwzN0hGipjQK Let's keep it going. Early Voting is every day now (including Saturdays and Sundays) through Nov 1st. No voting on Monday Nov 2nd and the “ last day of voting” is Tues Nov 3rd. Keep in mind that after Nov 3rd we still have work to do to make sure every vote is counted but also to keep building community in the fight for a better future for everyone living here. As our great guest speaker at our Oct 17th No Kings, Steve Kennedy from the People’s Parity Project, explained: “Defending democracy takes more than one rally, one election, or one moment of courage. It takes a community willing to sustain the work over time. It means building relationships, developing our collective power, and creating a community ready to act when our rights come under attack. That work depends on trust and a commitment to keep showing up for one another.” ********************* We have less than two weeks to continue giving out our Two-sided Voting Info cards and Spreading our Voting messages with our Post Its. Please pick some up at the rally, or I can arrange to get you some. We also have many voting buttons and stickers left for you to hand out. Please be a force multiplier!! Two-sided Voting Info Card for you and friends with key info on Voting Early and How to Protect Our Election. Check out the great Election Defense Scenarios documents provided by FreedomTrainers.net and CommonsLibrary.org Voting Message Post Its for you to help spread our Vote Early and other election messages! A reminder about why Early Voting is so Critical: Voting Early - in person, drop boxes where available - is one of our most powerful tools to ensure there is a free and fair election. Voting early means your voice is locked in and safe, days before anyone else can decide what happens next, and it gives you room to fix anything that goes wrong. Voting early means greater election security. You can have traditional problems on election day or a technical glitch or malicious attack: If voters get stuck in lines If equipment has issues You could be ill or have an emergency If there was bad weather If there was traffic Shift runs late Missing or disputed signature Missing form Polling-place closures Voter intimidation If there was a power outage If there were a cyber event Removed from the rolls If a ballot never arrives, is damaged, or is rejected, you still have time to vote in person or get a replacement ballot. Voter ID issues The more you spread voting out over a series of days and over multiple modes (in person, mail-in, dropboxes) the less likely it's going to impact voters. Greater access to voting means more people vote. Early voting inspires more voters! You have increased voter turnout. Making it far easier for people to vote is one reason we’ve seen such a big increase in turnout in recent years Our Election Day is now referred to by some as “just the last day of voting.” Early voting also focuses Get Out The Vote (GOTV) resources on a smaller pool of voters. Every night campaigns get the list of people who voted that day, so when you vote early you come off the campaign GOTV rolls (and you stop getting canvassed and called!!!!) allowing the campaign to move on to other people who have not voted yet. So having our voters vote as early as possible, on Day 1, is something that increases turnout for us and helps us win. We know that the regime will try to prevent the counting of ballots that arrive or are counted after Election Day. Early voting shrinks the post-election uncertainty that saboteurs can exploit. The more votes that are received and processed early, the harder it is to use a prolonged count to spread claims that legitimate late-counted ballots are fraudulent. The point of historic early vote turnout is that every ballot cast makes sabotage harder to pull off and easier to expose. Hope is a strategy. If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it…

Bethel Defends Democracy: Continuing Our Push for Early Voting

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