Indivisible Notes for August 10, 2020 Zoom Meeting 6:30

20 people attended

1. Discussed Joe Biden’s Vice-Presidential pick: Kamala Harris.

2. Wright County Indivisible members are looking for volunteers for 100 tables (outdoors with masks, social distancing, and hand sanitizers provided) for Get Out The Vote efforts in Sept. and Oct. at apartment buildings and preschools. We are running 3 test runs now with permission from the venues. Registration deadline is Oct. 13 with training offered. Contact Ann Bajari annbajari@gmail.com to sign up.

3. Fund raiser news: We got $765+ matching funds from National Indivisible so we added $1000 to our account (from a grant up to $1500).

4. Note from Lani: Results of the August 11 County Commissioner Primary: Mark Kaczmarek of Montrose (1,551 votes or 49.91%, winning 9 of 13 precincts) Dan Bravinder of Cokato came in second with 924 votes or 27.35%, Jason Franzen of Delano got 644 votes or 19.06% with Dan Vick earning 259 votes or 7.67%.Kaczmarek and Bravinder will be on the Nov. 3 ballot to see who will take the position.

5. Anti-racist group meeting will be Monday, August 17 at 7:00pm. Contact Renee Cardarelle <rc.card@live.com> if you want an invitation to the Zoom meeting.

6. Shawne Worley has Black Lives Matter signs for a donation if you would like one. Contact Shawne Worley shawne304@gmail.com

7. Jim Dalman said he will training people for the Get Out The Vote campaign on Tuesday, Aug.11. Interested contact James Dalman jadalman72@gmail.com.

8. Lori Cocking said that Jarry C. Boight from Better Angels (founder) feels we are losing our democracy with the pressure on Health Care and lots of corruption, economic decline, problems with the police reform. He will speak about the state of our Democracy on Aug. 20 at 7pm. If interested contact Lori for details. Lori Cocking loricockinghr@gmail.com

9. Speaker: Executive Director of Fair-Vote MN Jean is working to build our democracy. We are taking many new steps to address this problem. She encouraged all of us to join Better Angels to help. Rank Choice voting would help us get a candidate elected who has the greatest number of supporters even if it is their second choice. Trust in the Federal Government is only at 20%. We have low turn out for primary elections. (note from Lani: Aug. 11 was 20%).

In rank choice you vote for for 1st choice, second choice, and 3rd choice. If no candidate gets 50% +1, you count the second choice. The winner must appeal to a greater number to win. This encourages candidates to engage with more than just their base because that group alone will not deliver a win.

Sentator Mary Kiffmeyer MN (chair of Election Committee) again is blocking money from the federal level that could go into election reform. They must vote to accept these funds to be spent on assuring a safe election. She will not allow a vote on the measure.

In MN we cannot put the rank choice question on the ballot, nor can we run a petition. We must elect a pro-rank choice candidate to office. Rank choice voting expands the power of the voters. The candidate must please more voters to be elected.

10. Speaker: Candidate for MN Senate Erin Murphy (ran for governor in 2018 losing to Walz) discussed her experiences as a candidate of governor.

11. Next meeting Sept. 14 Meeting ended at 8:30pm