As the Maryland General Election cycle gets under way, progressive activists around the state will be focusing on one thing: everyone eligible to vote needs to know about the election, about the stakes and about why it is important that their own voices and the voices of their neighbors to be heard in the way it counts most – numbers of votes.
Here's how we do it. And you can too. Read on...
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THE CORE STRATEGIES FOR GETTING OUT THE VOTE
As the Maryland General Election cycle gets under way, progressive activists around the state will be focusing on one thing: everyone eligible to vote needs to know about the election, about the stakes and about why it is important that their own voices and the voices of their neighbors to be heard in the way it counts most – numbers of votes.
We point toward the November 6 election with, yes, a focus on the immediate task of getting those people motivated by their own self-interest to be sure to cast a vote in the numerous ways it can be done – at the polling place, during early voting or by absentee ballot.
But our modes of contacting our neighbors vary a lot, even though the basic move starts with a knock on the door, the dialing of a phone, or chatting at a table at an event – the “canvass.” The messages vary, the starting points vary. As progressive activists will find when learning from our detailed materials for canvassing strategies, every separate contact is its own thing.
We do deep canvassing and base building, which begin with the issues that concern people in their own lives and build awareness that those concerns are shared among their neighbors and members of the wider community. From that ground we can mobilize – “engaging and motivating people to take an action or series of actions” that can further develop activism in a community.
Because Progressive Maryland has been doing deep canvassing and base building all along, well before this election cycle, there’s a strong core of folks ready to mobilize in alignment with the more immediate tasks of the General Election: the Electoral Canvass, “targeting current or to-be-registered voters” and the GOTV canvass that moves those voters to the polls. During Early Voting and on Election Day, we do polling place awareness work, Electioneering.
Activists can see from this outline that all these methods and strategies converge to empower working people in their communities and give them a better window on who is running and why their issue concerns make it important to vote progressive candidates into office -- and then hold them accountable, between elections.
Progressive Maryland is an exciting place to express your activism because in addition to the work of canvassing we have social events/meetings/happy hours where we take a breather from the door to door work and get back to it refreshed.
We have active chapters all across the state – look for one in your area here. Or contact Statewide Organizing Director Beth Landry to get linked up with our revised 2018 Canvassing Guide -- with strategies that keep you in tune with your neighbors and community and make canvassing a low-anxiety, high-empowerment practice. This is how we make Maryland a better place to live for working families.
OUR CHAPTERS AROUND THE STATE
Tuesday, July 24 Protest “Official Democratic Ballot” scam. MoveOn.org has organized a protest at the Democratic Central Committee at 7 p.m., 2905 OLD LARGO RD UPPER MARLBORO MD. They used a misleading OFFICIAL DEMOCRATIC BALLOT to advertise the candidates that the Democratic Central Committee wanted. The voters of Prince George’s County got swindled and we did not get Victor Ramirez, Krystal Oriadha, Tony Knotts, and others to represent us. We have to let them know this can NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN.
 Wear your Progressive Maryland shirts or a black shirt.
Take Action Anne Arundel County
Lower Shore Progressive Caucus
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EVENTS FROM OUR ALLIES
Thursday July 26 at 7pm -- No Eastern Shore Pipeline The Climate Stewards of Greater Annapolis are hosting a discussion about how pipelines affect communities and how to help the communities on the Eastern Shore resist the 190 mile pipeline proposed to run from Pennsylvania to Virginia. We will be joined by folks from the No Eastern Shore Pipeline group and from communities in West Virginia and Pennsylvania who have been resisting the construction of natural gas pipelines through their communities Annapolis Friends Meeting House, 351 Dubois Rd, Annapolis. Flyer here
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Baltimore comrades, Check in on Max Obuszewski’s highly useful calendar and tip sheet at http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
To keep up with progressive events in and around DC consult the invaluable calendar at the Washington Peace Center, http://washingtonpeacecenter.org/alerts
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OUR BLOG POSTS IN THE PAST WEEK
Reading the Progressive Maryland BlogSpace: our blogs for the previous week are shown below, but if you want a handy way to keep track – and never miss a blog post – you can sign up to get this Weekly Memo by email. Remember this is your blogspace and your participation is heartily invited. See something going on that you don’t like – or that you do like and hope to see more of? Send us your thoughts; submit to the moderator at [email protected]
We recently published these blog posts:
July 19, 2018 Teachers Join Progressives as partners “In a Revolution”
The Supreme Court’s recent anti-union Janus decision is sparking activism among the unionized public employees it affects, emphatically including teachers. As Jeff Bryant explains, they are already pushing back hard, in Maryland and elsewhere, against right-wing money that aims ultimately to eliminate unions.
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July 16, 2018 Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for July 16-23 2018
Getting our ducks in a row for a new governor in 2019 -- Larry Hogan's free ride on the continued Obama economy masks his warmed-over Ehrlich version of state government, filling the pockets of corporate and business interests while keeping a foot on the necks of working families. Help us build the real Hogan record... more below. Plus the week's activist calendar.
 >>REMEMBER – these blog posts are expressions of political opinion from our wide-ranging membership and circle of allies. They are not expressions of opinion by Progressive Maryland. Don’t be surprised if they sometimes vary in their political content. You might even disagree with them – a good reason to contribute a blog of your own. Send it to the moderator, Woody Woodruff, at [email protected].
>>Keeping up with the blogs is easier with the index. The blogs published in the PM BlogSpace from June 2015 through December 2016 are all available with descriptions and links here. You can follow blogs for 2017-18 starting from here
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