Florida Taking Action

We have a three-person group of Balloon Juice peeps who are taking on Florida.

They are researching bills intended to restrict voting or overturn the will of the people.  They are also making lists of elected officials, party activists, and civic and political activists that might be mobilizing to fight these awful laws, and they will be making contact with those groups to see what might be done to help them in their efforts.

This thread is a place where that team can communicate, share information with one another, ask questions, etc.

But anyone that has potentially  helpful information related to FL is encouraged to comment.  Maybe you know of a political organization that might be active in FL, or you have an in with an elected official or an aide in the state.  If you know anything that might be helpful, please jump in.

You can also chime in to applaud the FL stat team: Ian, Suburban Mom, and Faithful Lurker.

Otherwise, you can ignore this post (and the other posts that will go up once one of the pilot state teams meet for the first time).  Each post will be active for a couple of weeks, and a link to these posts is in the sidebar.

Summary after Florida team Meeting

Thanks so much.  To recap the Zoom discussion we made the following assignments that we volunteered for yesterday.  If I got anything wrong just let me know.

• Primary spreadsheet wrangler and contact for Lisa – Karen/Suburban Mom
• Regular (every 2 – 3 days) communication and status update with project leaders – Faithful Lurker, if possible?
• Monitoring BJ thread for updates and news – Ian
• Research on state-level legislative and governance structures  and legislative activity- Karen/Suburban Mom (input from all welcome)
• Research on local organizations and initiatives to combat voter suppression – Ian (input from all welcome)

Faithful Lurker, we are a relatively small group, and it sounds like the states with larger teams are dividing up the research activity.  We don’t want to duplicate effort.  Time is of the essence, and we need to move quickly to complete the initial research in 2 weeks or less. Florida has not experiences as much legislative activity as soon states, so that sounds doable.

I am going to try and set up a Google Drive folder we can use to share what we find, organize the materials that are sent by others, and also communicate what we’re working on next so that we avoid duplication.  Hopefully this will work for everyone.  So that we spend more time on research and less on fussing with technology, could you please let us know:

• What is the best way to reach you – is it email, IM, posting on the BJ thread or something else?
• Are you comfortable using Word and Excel?
• Are you comfortable using Doodle Polls to arrange meetings?
• Are there times slots or days in general that work well for you to connect?

Best work times for each team member for this project

Karen/Suburban Mom: my best times for working on this are usually early mornings and weekends, Eastern Time.  I check email throughout the day. I spend big chunks of my working days on Zoom meetings so it is hard for me to answer a call, but I can usually email or text.

Team Members

 

Interface roles explained:

We will want to know who is filling each of the roles on the team.

• (exactly one) person to be point-of-contact with Alan and WaterGirl.  Schedule the contact every 2-3 days or as necessary.
• (exactly one) person to be point-of-contact with Matthew [Lisa] and manage the state’s spreadsheet
• (exactly one) person to keep tabs on the state’s page [link here?] and the project’s page [link here?]

Project roles explained:

• one or more people to research legislation, using Voting Rights Lab and similar sources
• one person in particular that can take the first crack at the Voting Rights Lab in the first 2-3 days, so others can fill in the rest from other sites
• one or more people to research elected officials.  Committee ranking members, minority caucus leadership, and their staff people are key here.  Hint: also include Dem Party activists as a potential means of cutting through the clutter.
• one or more people to contact the elected officials.  Ideally should be a resident of the state.  Hint: use the legislative research to inform questions to the electeds, use their answers to inform the legislative research.
• one or more people to identify state activists trying to build resistance against the legislation
• one or more people to contact the activists

Please set up communication channels within your group however you wish.  What works for you is best.

For communication about spreadsheets, please contact the person who presented the spreadsheets at your team meeting.

For communication with the leadership team, regular reports can be posted on the state pages. But please use email when there is an urgent issue or something you need to call to our attention.

When in doubt, email is fine.  Don’t hesitate to contact us when you need to!

Team Roles! (add person’s nym here)

Interface Roles

Contact with Alan & WaterGirl:

Contact with your Spreadsheet Person (Matt or Lisa):

Monitor the Team Post:

?

Project Roles

Voting Rights Lab Research (in the first 2-3 days):

Research Legislation on other sites:

Research Elected Officials:

Contact Elected Officials:

Identify State Organizations & Activists:

Contact the Activists:

?

Please copy this list into a comment and add the names there.