Dear Indivisible Kensington,

Thirty three days until the election. County elections offices will begin mailing ballots on October 5, which is the day that secure drop boxes for vote by mail ballots will open. Note that the drop box by the library has been moved up to the Community Center. And remember, if you’re not registered to vote or have moved since you last registered, you have until October 19 to register online for the November 3 election. For more information, go here. And don’t forget to join us on October 17 for No Kings Vote Early day (see below).

No Kings Vote Early Day

We are holding an event on Saturday, October 17, 12:00-2:00 on the Arlington at Amherst  – and hopefully stretching along both sides of the street. Please join us and bring your friends and family. You can register here. This is part of the national No Kings Vote Early mobilization, designed to encourage massive early voting and enrollment in rapid response networks and other election protection efforts. The ultimate goal is to defend our right to vote and have every vote counted, and to be prepared to defend that right against any attempt by the Trump administration to take it away from us.

For this event to be successful, we need volunteers to help. Specific roles include:1.  Sign making – host a sign making party before the event, staff a table with sign-making supplies at the event;2.  Set up and decorations – make us visible at the site with a table for flyers and other information, hang the Indivisible Kensington banner and balloons, provide chairs for those who need to sit, etc.;3.  Safety and traffic control – wear yellow safety vests, help people cross the Arlington safely, help with other situations that may arise;4.  Refreshments – bring cookies, donuts, and arrange on table;5.  Leafleting – distribute flyers, talk to people about the importance of early voting, voting procedures, and election protection resources;6.  Chant leaders and noise makers – create chants, print them out for others, and lead them; bring noise makers – drums, tambourines, pans, trombones, vuvuzelas. We want to make as much noise for democracy, the right to vote and the rule of law as we can;7.  Clean up – leave the democracy corner as clean as it was. Please sign up to volunteer here. And don’t worry, you won’t be on your own if you volunteer.  The leadership team will work with all of the volunteers ahead of time to make sure you know what you’ll be doing and have the resources you need to do it well.

Our event is part of a coordinated series of “Democracy Corners” throughout the East Bay. We’ll be leafleting to let people know that Kensington’s secure drop box has moved from the library to the community center and that we can provide rides to voters who need them. We’ll also be providing election protection information and resources. And, we’ll be celebrating our power and our community with signs, chants, costumes, noise makers, food and maybe even music.

If you’ve been wondering what you can do, or what else you can do, to ensure the massive Blue wave we all expect and so desperately need, here’s your chance.  

Report Back from Iowa Field Trip
Four of us (three IK members and one Oakland friend of IK) spent this past weekend in Iowa, canvassing for Christina Bohanan, the Democratic candidate for Congress whose race is rated as a toss-up by the Cook Political Report (she lost to her much disliked opponent by only 700 votes in 2024), meeting with local activists and visiting with an assortment of lively, interesting people. For some of us, the experience definitely dispelled the stereotype of Iowa as a boring, Republican “fly-over” state. One take-away from the canvassing, which we did in a working class neighborhood of Muscatine with a relatively large number of Latinos, is just how disaffected many people are. One of the most common responses we heard is that people didn’t think voting mattered, that their vote didn’t really count and that politicians just do whatever they want anyway.  Some of the best conversations were actually with these people, where we came away thinking that perhaps they had opened up to the idea that, indeed, their vote did matter. Check out the attached photo of the Saturday afternoon canvassing team.
Another take-away came from our meeting with Victoria, the founder and leader of Quad City Indivisible, who had never done anything political before Trump’s re-election in 2024. She hadn’t even voted until she was 50. She now has some 2,000 people on her distribution list for her weekly newsletter, has weekly in-person meetings, and has organized demonstrations for all of the Hands Off and No Kings days. Her energy and resourcefulness and determination were an example for all of us.

The energy, resourcefulness, and creativity of Leila Staton, the 22 year old running for an Iowa state assembly seat for whom we had a fundraising party last spring, and her mom, Heather, and their friends were also inspiring. In addition to the campaign, leading their Indivisible chapter (the Insufferable Wenches), full time jobs, and raising kids (Heather has 4 with Leila being the oldest), they have acquired a building they are calling Third Space, which they are fast transforming into a community and mutual aid center. There will be computers, a library space (featuring donated banned books), resources for job seekers, a distribution area with supplies for unhoused people, and more. To check it out, go here.  And see the attached picture of us with Leila and Heather in the area of Third Space that will house the books.  

Overall we all came away from this trip feeling heartened about people’s ability and will to take charge of their lives and make the changes they want to see for themselves and their communities.

Resources for Election ProtectionWe encourage everybody to be prepared to defend the upcoming election. The following list of resources will provide you with information to be involved in this effort in whatever way you can.

1.  Learn about Hands Off Our Vote. This is Indivisible’s national election protection program.  

2.  Attend Hands Off Our Vote, Live from NYC, Sunday, October 4, 7-8:00 NY time, 4-5:00 west coast.

3.  Join Indivisible East Bay and Bay Resistance’s rapid response network.

     If you’re already on Signal, click here.

     If you’re not on Signal, click here or go directly to the Bay Resistance Pledge.

4.  Become a poll monitor.

     Work with the Asian Law Caucus. training on October 13.

5.  Learn more about how to be a poll observer in Contra Costa County.

6.  Become a poll worker.

7.  If you or somebody you know or observe, needs help with voting, call the Election Protection Hotline, 866-Our-Vote.Kudos to Our Postcard Writers
Thank you, thank you, thank you to all the IK postcard writers who’ve been busy for months writing to voters in states all over the country. Most recently we sent out 700 postcards to voters in Maine, urging them to vote Susan Collins out. And IK writers are now working on 750 postcards to send in support of James Talarico in Texas and Mary Peltola in Alaska. We’ll give you a final tally of postcards written this year once the dust settles.
And, finally, 

Do you need some inspiration?  If you’re sick of reading or hearing about the elections and all the other horrors in the news, and want to remember why this work we do is so important, take a listen to Bryan Stevenson, founder and co-director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, AL, in conversation on City Arts and Lectures. Hearing about his work and how he got to where he is is always inspiring, but the ending part of the conversation, right before they started taking questions and also including the Q and A, are particularly moving. 

Please let us know if you have questions or suggestions about anything in this newsletter.  Hope to see you out on the street on the 17th.

In Solidarity,

Barbara and Robin for the IK Leadership Team