September 30th
I woke up this morning and still felt abused by last night’s spectacle. I hope you are being kind to yourselves.
An update on the ballot misprints: the Board of Elections will be sending reprinted ballots to all voters who may have received ballots from the first print run, “based on when their original application was processed and printed.” The new absentee ballot package will be accompanied by a notice of explanation and the BOE will also be communicating with voters by social media, email, and phone to try to avoid further confusion. It is no longer necessary to report this issue to the BOE if you have a ballot mismatched to your address. There is more to this story; if you have premium access on LinkedIn, please contact Michael Ryan, the Executive Director of the BOE to ask him why there was a no-bid contract with Phoenix Graphics, a Rochester company with Republican ties. If you’re on Twitter, tweet @PG_Rochester to tell them it looks like #votersuppression.
Your Congressional Representative needs to hear from you today. Please tell them to support the BREATHE Act. The proposed legislation is ambitious and to my knowledge, it does not yet have a sponsor. What we are asking for is a commitment to sweeping civil rights reforms that will move resources into “non-punitive, community led approaches to public safety.” Otherwise, we will continue to learn the names of people who have senselessly lost their lives to state-sanctioned violence.
The election is 34 days away. A number of people have asked me about down-ballot candidates to support. A few days ago, I asked you to support Senate candidates Steve Bullock of Montana, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in Georgia, Theresa Greenfield in Iowa, and Cal Cunningham in North Carolina. Those are still good folks to support. My current thinking is that we’re going to need to be ready to impeach and remove the President if the electoral math breaks the wrong way AND that federal legislation is the best way to secure reproductive rights. So, in that spirit, I recommend that we also support MJ Hegar of Texas, and shore up the likely wins of Sara Gideon, Jaime Harrison, and Mark Kelly. I’ve decided to support Sima Ladjevardian , who has Dan Crenshaw on the run (TX 2) because of his corona-denial. This morning, no amount of money seems too much to spend to make this be over.
The school reopening continues to teeter. Yesterday, the covid-positive test rate in the city passed 3%. If you remembered hearing that 3% would shut down the schools, the Mayor reminded reporters that he “said very clearly that it would be the seven day rolling average." The spikes are concentrated in 9 zip codes, the Governor is blaming the Mayor, and you can imagine how ordinary people feel.
Finally, I am happy to tell you that Susan Kraft is offering free, daily meditation groups on Zoom every morning from 8-8:20 throughout October, which mercifully begins tomorrow. You have the link. Meet me at meditation tomorrow.