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General News    H3'ed 9/24/20

Postcard Outreach to Vote-by-Mail Voters Underway in Broward County

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About 1/3 of Florida voters cast ballots with a mail-in ballot when President Trump won the state by 113,000 votes out of 9 million cast in 2016.

The close result is worth noting because Florida, the third most-populous state in the nation, hands the winner of the November election 29 electoral votes. This bounty can tip a close contest to the candidate who wins the Sunshine State, which is perennially known as a swing state.

For context, this year officials expect many more Florida residents to vote at home by mail as a way to protect themselves from the deadly, novel Coronavirus. More than 200,000 people have died in this country so far, with medical experts warning the fall and winter months may double the number of dead Americans.

Against this backdrop, the Voter Participation Project, a nonprofit group, is working to "reduce the number of VBM ballots that are thrown out because voters may not have all the information they need to successfully vote by mail," says Board Member Len Leritz.

He adds, "We are sending hand address postcards to voters who have registered to VBM with information they need to make sure their vote gets counted."

Among other things, VBM ballots get rejected because of signature problems. The voter must sign the envelope that holds the ballot. Officials compare that signature with signatures already on file for the voter. The ballots must also be received by the end of voting on Election Day.

Members of the Hills Democratic Club, in Hollywood, in Broward County, are joining this effort. Elaine Schwartz, the club president, writes:

à - ª Volunteers will partially write each postcard by hand and write in the Early voting sites for the precinct with a personal note... "I'm your Hollywood neighbor (Your First Name) - Please vote!" etc. à - ª We will remind them there's still time to ask for a VBM (Vote By Mail) ballot, that Early Voting starts Oct. 19, that they can drop their ballots or vote early at an Early voting site and that "Your Nearest Early Voting location is -- à - ª Also Volunteers will address postcards that will be collected, reviewed, stamped, and mailed about a week before Early Voting (around Oct. 10-12) so that they will be received before early voting begins (Oct 19) à - ª We will help in distribution of our assignments as well. à - ª You will be provided with lists of names, addresses, and nearest Early Vote sites for each household. Volunteers will estimate how many cards they think they can write.

You can learn more about the Voter Participation Project, which also works to "heal social and political division" in our country, at: https://protectvoting.org/ and http://vppaf.org/

(Article changed on September 25, 2020 at 03:43)

(Article changed on September 25, 2020 at 14:47)

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Steve Schneider lives in Florida. He writes articles for Humor Times, Democracy Chronicles, The Satirist and OpEd News.

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