November 2024
Closing Strong
The ace up our sleeve is local organizing.
- Billy Wimsatt, Movement Voter Project
Feeling unsettled from too many rides on the Pollercoaster? Jessica Craven of Chop Wood, Carry Water advises, “Stop listening to the noise. Keep focusing on the actions. You’re going to feel crazy, exhausted, stressed, and baffled by how close things seem.” Craven continues:
Look at what we’re seeing on the ground, folks. The early voting lines. The absolutely jaw-dropping amount of volunteering. The tens of thousands of postcards, the busloads of canvassers, the millions of dollars raised. The ENERGY. We are not crazy. It is happening. Countless patriotic Americans are working tirelessly to save this country.
You, dear Airlift community, are among them. Your generosity is what enables our Partner Groups to keep giving their all: Millions of doors knocked, phone calls made, conversations logged, voting plans and commitments secured, early voting encouraged, and accurate information disseminated. Their efforts are crucial to victory up and down the ballot.
Airlift Partners are bringing everything they’ve got, and so must we. We cannot let up until every last vote is cast and counted.
Choosing–and Protecting–Our Future
That’s the message and the mission we whole-heartedly believe in. It’s what Airlift Partners live and breathe every day to engage and empower left-behind folks. Since 2016, a massive progressive grassroots effort has turned millions of disenchanted non-voters into voters, securing victory after victory from the top to the bottom of the ballot. People have begun to connect the dots between political action and a better future.
Yet that future we’ve worked toward is under threat from a relentless right-wing effort not only to suppress the vote, but to sabotage election results. As Ari Berman, a journalist and expert on voting rights observes:
The big thing since 2020 is that we have voter suppression on the front end, but now we also have voter suppression on the back end. Meaning that they’re not just trying to make it harder to register to vote or to cast a ballot; they’re making it harder for votes to be counted. That to me is the most alarming tactic we’re seeing, and I think it’s the newest tool in their arsenal to try to undermine democracy.
We already witnessed a frightening dress rehearsal in 2020. Back then, Airlift Partner We the People played a decisive role in making sure Michigan’s election results were properly certified. At an Airlift event earlier this year, Art Reyes, the founder and leader of We the People, detailed the months of anticipation, planning, and massive organizing it took (all while also getting out the vote to win Michigan). Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s Secretary of State, recalled the crisis when Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, under pressure from Trump, were getting ready to dismiss Detroit’s vote. Benson was already doing everything she could in her official and legal capacity to thwart the GOP’s subversion, but it wasn’t enough. The crucial difference came when We the People organized legions of citizens to show up and demand that their votes be counted. We the People, noted Benson, saved democracy:
What We the People did then, and is preparing for now, is awe-inspiring and beyond the normal call of duty. All Airlift Partner Groups are preparing in one way or another because of the even bigger threats in 2024.
MAGA energy and money for sabotaging the election’s legitimacy has skyrocketed since 2020. Fortunately, countering these subversion attempts has been a top priority of fair-minded elected officials, national organizations, and lawyers, who have taken the lead in safeguarding the election process on the ground and in the courts. Still, the intimidation, threats of violence, and sheer volume of election interference are frightening, exhausting, and expensive for grassroots groups. In addition to chasing down every last vote before the polls close and helping voters fix minor mail-in ballot mistakes to make sure their vote counts, our Partners have to prepare for:
Physical safety and poll defense, including training people in de-escalation and safety procedures
Digital security, including around doxing, phishing, and infiltration
Probable post-election scenarios and contested races
Educating and organizing base to be ready to volunteer and turn out en masse to protect election results
Election certification issues, including when any delay in election certification impacts necessary down-ballot measures
Identifying and joining potential legal strategies to push back on any legal challenges
Carrie Santoro, Executive Director of Airlift Partner Pennsylvania Stands Up, paints a vivid picture of what they’re facing in this election’s most important swing state:
Republicans are hellbent on stealing this election in two ways:
Throwing out enough ballots to secure a Trump win
Delaying certification beyond December 11, at which point the decision of who won Pennsylvania would go to our Supreme Court
So far, they’ve successfully (for now) eliminated most drop boxes in Luzerne County (and others!). They’re removing people from voter rolls in Lancaster County. And now the GOP is trying to challenge Notice and Cure–saying that counties should not have to notify voters whose ballots have been tossed. We also expect them to challenge as many provisional ballots as possible, which means we’ll need to notify voters that their ballots are being challenged, make sure they appear at these provisional ballot hearings, and defend their right to vote.
So basically, we are preparing for the election in Pennsylvania to not be final until December 11–with a lot of work to defend democracy in between!
Our Partner Groups aren’t resting, and we can’t either–not until every last voter casts a ballot, and every last vote is counted. The future is ours to choose, and to defend. Thank you for choosing to stick with this fight.
It’s Up to Us
Let’s not lose by a few thousand votes. - Mark Ruffalo
This is it–your last chance to mobilize the voters we need and defend the country we love by making sure those votes are counted. Your contributions now will help pay for canvassers to knock on even more doors, get out the vote, and protect the election. Let’s keep working hard and closing strong. Here’s how:
Donate Online at ActBlue. Just click this button
Donate by Check. Set up automatic payments to Airlift with the Bill Pay service at your bank, or send a check directly to: Airlift, PO Box 617, Corte Madera CA 94976
For Tax-Deductible Giving. Although non-tax-deductible 501c4 gifts allow our partners the most flexibility for political action, tax-deductible 501c3 donations are welcome too. Email Ruth Jaeger at ruth@airlift.fund.
Donate by Check. Set up automatic payments to Airlift with the Bill Pay service at your bank, or send a check directly to: Airlift, PO Box 617, Corte Madera CA 94976
Thanks!
FIELD NOTES
Arizona’s Worker Power continues to rock it: “There simply is no effort on the GOP side anywhere close to the size and sophistication of the Worker Power canvas.” Read more in The Nation.
Reinforcing the importance of voting to drive change, Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA) hosts an inspiring panel discussion: “Power Hour: Latinas Decide The Future,” with special guests Kerry Washington, Glenn Close, Jessica Alba, and Michael Ealy. Crucial topics such as reproductive rights, the climate crisis, housing costs, and the rising cost of living were addressed.
We the People (Michigan) is part of Count on Us, which “protects the freedom to vote and ensures that the will of the people prevails and advances our vision of a more just, free, and equal future.”
Carolina Federation chapter Guilford for All mobilizes the vote: “We don't have the kind of power of money that corporations and billionaires have, but we do have the power of people moving together across race, class, gender, and zip code who choose to take action together and win a different future.”
The NEPA Chapter of Pennsylvania Stands Up exemplified community power at the local level when a majority of Lackawanna County commissioners rejected an effort to eliminate ballot drop boxes.
Down Home North Carolina reaches its goal of knocking on 500,000 doors and having 75,000 deep conversations, and will continue to turn out voters through election day.
