Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

If you’re gonna whine, it’s time to resign!

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

You cannot shame the shameless.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Fight them, without becoming them!

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

He really is that stupid.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Zoom With Voces de la Frontera on Thursday July 15 at 7:30

Zoom With Voces de la Frontera on Thursday July 15 at 7:30

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We have had some discouraging and disappointing news related to voting lately, but that just means that we have to fight harder, and smarter.  In the end, control of the House and the Senate after the midterm elections is what matters most.  So let’s get to work.

We have scheduled the zoom with Voces de la Frontera Action  for Thursday July 15 at 7:30 pm Eastern.  So set your calendars for a week from today!

You may recall that Voces is Wisconsin’s leading state-wide immigrant rights organization, and they are in the process of raising funds for a full-time elections organizer.

In the zoom next Thursday, in addition to the three who participated in our Balloon Juice Q&A post, we will have two leaders from their youth organization (Youth Empowered in the Struggle, aka YES).  The folks from Voces will talk with us about about what they’re doing now and the impact that having the field organizer position can be expected to have on the primaries and the election in Wisconsin for 2022.

But I will share a small preview now.

This is how they described the situation on the ground for the 2020 cycle:

Once these campaigns start we’re always scrambling, re-prioritizing, trying to cobble something together – something, somehow, someway.  It’s throwing spaghetti at the wall with pitchforks.  It’s highly inefficient but we do it that way because we’re used to it (though we don’t like it!), it works surprisingly often, we rarely have a choice, and even when it doesn’t work we find ourselves better off in the long run than we would have been had we done nothing.  It’s also completely draining, it leads to high burnout and high turnover, and you can’t build much of an organization when you’re continually training new people  to replace old ones.

Even with the situation on the ground in 2020 as described above, Voces was able to turn out people in numbers that were higher than the margin of victory in Wisconsin.

Just imagine what they could do with a full-time field organizer – someone whose sole focus is to coordinate all that activity on the ground.

We are going to need every vote we can get in 2022 and 2024, and this looks like a great opportunity to make a real difference.

Please join us a week from today to hear more from the folks at Voces.

It’s not looking like we will be able to raise the full $45,000 needed for the field organizer position, but they are working to find a person or organization that could match our funds if we are able to raise half, which would be $22,500.  I am hoping that there will be news on that front by next Thursday when we have our zoom with them.

Here’s the original Voces post:  Q & A with Voces de la Frontera

Voces de la Frontera Action

Goal Thermometer

Interested in the zoom?   Please let us know in the comments, and also send me email to let me know.  Please include your nym in the email so I can connect the dots.

 

Reader Interactions

49Comments

  1. 1.

    Al Nichols

    Hello all, WaterGirl suggested I stop by to answer any questions you might have related to Voces de la Frontera.  Happy to do that, if you have any questions please ask away.

  2. 2.

    piratedan

    I was curious about how do you connect the dots between census numbers and voting numbers to understand what areas to target when registering new voters and getting them engaged in the process? Do you simply have to reach out to them in a personal engagement to make a difference or is there some convincing that has to be done, i.e. selling them on small d democracy and America itself?

  4. 4.

    MomSense

    I’m in for the zoom and I got a small bonus at work so I’m in for 5 $20 contributions on this thread. Hit reply, donate $20 and I’ll match the first 5.

  5. 5.

    Al Nichols

    @piratedan: Wisconsin breaks down the census data by ward for every county in the state, and for every ward reports by ethnic group.  So that part is easy, you can set a population threshold to determine concentrations.

    Voting numbers is harder because the state does not tag ballots by ethnic group, but that’s OK with us, we go to the target wards and try to get everyone registered and engaged.  For example, canvass every likely voter, using literature in English and Spanish, with bilingual canvassers.

  7. 7.

    piratedan

    @WaterGirl: understood and I hope that I didn’t break the session with the question… just one of those things where I see numbers here and numbers there and wanted to have a better understanding of how these organizations manage to connect the dots to help create positive outcomes, more voters (hopefully for us)

  8. 8.

    WaterGirl

    I’ll start a list of attendees for the zoom that’s a week from today.

    Please everyone also email me to RSVP – that way once I have the zoom set up, I can just hit reply on each message to share the zoom links with everyone who wants to attend.

    Zoom attendees so far:

    MomSense
    One of the Many Jens ?

  12. 12.

    One of the Many Jens

    Don’t have any questions right now, but wanted to delurk and say I’m really impressed with this organization, and looking forward to supporting it next week, when I’m able to get a check deposited!  Thank you so much for all the work you do!

  16. 16.

    Joy in FL

    @WaterGirl: I just sent you an email to let you know that I want to attend the Zoom on July 15.

    Thanks for making it simple to do a good thing.

  19. 19.

    One of the Many Jens

    @WaterGirl:  Ha! No, on my last delurk awhile back I was spacing and didn’t remember for sure what nym I’d used, but as one of the bajillion Jens from back in the day, and remembering TooMany’s nym, went with this! And now, since I’m in the system with this, decided to stick with it.

    Thanks for putting all these together, btw. I really appreciate it. I won’t be able to make the zoom – the craziest part of my year is almost but not quite finished. But once August hits, I’ll be back to help throw my shoulder against the wheel with you all!

  21. 21.

    Al Nichols

    Folks, I have to go now but I’ll check back in the morning to see if any questions come in after I’m gone.  In the mean time thanks to all of you for your contributions tonight and in the thermometer; hope to see you all next week.

  27. 27.

    Sure Lurkalot

    I threw in $25 to this fine organization. Can’t make the Zoom meeting…hope it’s lively!

  29. 29.

    sab

    Dumb question that has probably been answered elsewhere: what does the name mean?  “Voices from/of the Border?” That’s my guess from elementary school Spanish 60 years ago.

    ETA I am so glad to see that thermometer moving up.

  33. 33.

    WaterGirl

    @MomSense: Rememberer when we used to do that on the Obama blog?

    If we got trolls on the blog, I and others would offer to match donations of $25 or so “in honor of” the troll.  We raised a ton of money that way.

  36. 36.

    Quiltingfool

    I talked to John about donating through my quilts.  We discussed it a bit, but we haven’t come up with a plan.  Well, I’m not sure how to do this in a fair way, and I can really only do one quilt, but I had an idea that if a jackal would buy one of my quilts, I would donate the purchase price to Voces in his or her name.  John asked me what quilt I wanted to use for this, and I think it should be the buyer’s choice.

    So, any ideas on how to do this in a fair way?  What if anyone wanting to do this gave their name to Watergirl (sorry Watergirl, I’m throwing you in the middle of this…) and maybe she, or another front-pager could pull a name out of a hat, or something like that.  Then, we could go from there.

    What say you, Balloon Juice fellows?  Here’s my Etsy store link: etsy.com/shop/QuiltingByCynthia

  37. 37.

    Emma from Miami

    Threw in $100 just because I expected to spend $1500 on a rehab of my front porch and only used up $1400. It makes me feel good to use up some cash on a worthwhile cause.

  38. 38.

    WaterGirl

    @Quiltingfool: I think that is a lovely idea!

    It will get lost in this thread, though.  Maybe I can talk to Albatrossity and Billin and see if we can sneak you ahead of them for the new “creatives” series where we are going to feature one person each week.

    Why don’t you send me an email message to get the ball rolling.

    Pull names out of a hat?  Have an auction on BJ?  Who knows?

  40. 40.

    dexwood

    @Quiltingfool: I say, from experience, one often asked to donate a piece of my folk art, choose one thing you really like, something that makes you proud to have done. Donate that one. Don’t give choices. Keep it simple.

  41. 41.

    Mousebumples

    @MomSense: great idea! I’ll have to check our finances and see if I can do something similar in a future thread. (eg offer to match up to $x in donations)

  45. 45.

    PatrickG

    @MomSense: This comment made me get off my ass and finally donate to VDLF. I’m matching your match, and will trust you on finding donors.

    In fact, if you can find ten people to donate $20… I’ll match that too!

  46. 46.

    Al Nichols

    @Quiltingfool: On the topic of donating crafted items such as quilts, etc., rather than through ActBlue, we have a way to do that.

    Every year in the fall (and this year on Sept. 17) we host a gala event as a fundraiser in the run-up to the elections.  One component of the gala is a silent auction in which people bid against each other for purchase of items donated by business and individual supporters.  We’ve featured quilts and other crafts at the silent auction in the past, so this is something that people at the gala know to expect.

    The person coordinating the gala this year is Alejandra, who will be on the zoom next week, we can discuss details then — or make contact directly through WaterGirl.

    And thanks, I think this is a great idea.

  47. 47.

    Al Nichols

    Thanks again to all of you for your comments, questions, and donations.  See you next week!

Comments are closed.