Early Early Ballots?? Late Early Ballots??

 There seems to be massive/widespread confusion about when EARLY BALLOTS are counted in Arizona. And I blame the news media for at least perpetuating –if not causing—that confusion.

For the record, if, as an Arizona voter, you are on the Permanent Early Voter List (PEVL),  you mail your early ballot before the Friday before Election Day, and it is received at the County Recorder’s office by around noon on the Monday before Election Day, it is counted immediately.  Not saved until Election Day.  Not saved until the day after Election Day. 

I say “around noon” because as you know, elections ain’t cheap. The County Elections Office doesn’t staff for the growing number of these early ballots.

As a result, not ALL early ballots received before election day are counted early.

The office ends up with a backlog, often very large (100,000+) that come in over the last 5 days or so, and most of these are also LATE early ballots and do not get counted before Elections Office staff stop counting early ballots around noon on Monday. But they are COUNTED.

How do I know?  Because 2 days after I mailed my ballot I went online: https://recorder.maricopa.gov/earlyvoteballotnet/evbstatus.aspx

After identifying myself I learned that my ballot was RECEIVED and COUNTED.

Let me repeat that for emphasis: Early ballots are counted early as long as they are postmarked the Friday BEFORE Election Day and received midday the Monday BEFORE Election Day.  But they are all COUNTED.

Now, for further emphasis, here it is in BOLD FACE: Early ballots are counted EARLY as long as they are postmarked the Friday BEFORE Election Day and received midday the Monday BEFORE Election Day. But they are all COUNTED.

So which are the early ballots that news media report a week after Election Day are still being counted?

It’s simple: “Early Ballots” that are received at the Elections Office after midday on the day before Election Day, OR were brought by hand to a polling place ON Election Day, are LATE Early Ballots.  And they are counted AFTER the ballots that were voted on Election Day.  But they are COUNTED.

Here it is again in BOLD FACE: LATE Early Ballot are counted AFTER the ballots that were voted ON or BEFORE Election Day.  But they are COUNTED.

Get it?

Good!!

Wow, That's Fabulous

       What a great series of events today:

• ·      A lady –and not a Democratic lady-- called to say that she had moved and needed to see if her polling place had changed.  Although she hadn’t gone far, it had, indeed. So had her Legislative District.  It turns out that not only are Kelli Butler and Dr. Eric Meyer her State Legislative candidates, but their campaign office is a mile from her new home. Long-story-short, she’s now a phone-banker.  And she’s brought her sister.
• ·      A 15-year transplanted Democrat called to ask  --make that to complain--why there were not Dems running for certain offices. We had a lot of fun talking about our backgrounds in NY/NJ/CT. Then, for each office that he named without a Dem candidate my answer was the same: “Because you didn’t volunteer to run.”  I had to explain that candidates don’t just pop up.  People start as members of their Precinct Committee; they become officers in their legislative district.  They join community groups and run for office on their School Board.  If there are no candidates for a particular office it’s because you didn’t volunteer.
• ·      My neighbor walked into the office.  He’s a strong R.  But in response to my comment that some of our other R neighbors have expressed the idea that their party has left them, he said that although he’s always thought of himself as conservative, he now says that he’s actually a “liberal Republican” and voted for Goddard and Garcia.  He’s trying to take back his party.

My Party Left ME

Yet one more voter called the office to ask how to change party affiliation from R to D.
After telling him where to go and how to do it, my stock question is, "Why are you leaving your party?
And the usual answer is: My party left ME.

Today it was a Sun City resident --88 years old, and married to a Republic, he said.  Jokingly, I commented on his being a mixed marriage."

"More than that," he quipped.  "She's African-American."

He said that he was angry with "Congress always shooting down our Commander In Chief."  "He's our President and they should work with him for the benefit of us all."

It seems that every-other-day I talk to a voter such as this one.  The best has got to have been one of my neighbors.  But the reason was the same: My party left ME.

Do you know people to whom this has happened?  Lemme hear about it.

Walk The Walk; Talk The Talk

Nothing beats “feet on the street” and “digits on the dial.”  Those are the ways that you keep in touch with voters and potential voters.  Those are the ways that you inform, persuade and motivate.

Most of the time I do that at the party HQ office, fielding logistical calls such as:

Where’s my absente ballot?

Is there still time to get on the Permanent Early Voter List?

What district am I in?

Sometimes voters want to know the party’s stand on the propositions or about local, school-board candidates.

And often I’m able to recruit them to volunteer at a local office to call on other friendly Democrats in their neighborhood.

Then there are the “never-darken-my-doorstep-again” callers. I spent way too long on the phone explaining why a Republican voter and her husband get calls from Dems, especially since she is on the Federal DNC list.

There are --WERE-- 5 other Dems with that same number. 

I deleted their number from the listings of those 5.

I explained the list-swapping biz to her.

We talked about security, new credit-cards with chips, and being “cash-less.”

I told her that it's part of the price of our democracy that people fought and died for. 

We talked about child-birth and raising kids, which are both P-I-T-A.

In closing, I told her that when she’s ready to vote with the other 99% to give me a call.

This past weekend I spent time walking the walk and talking the talk in my own neighborhood. I heard my neighbor across the street and told her that she needed to spruce up her front yard.

“Flowers?” she asked.  “No.  Political yard signs,” I answered. 

My neighbor was OK with any of our great Democratic candidates, but especially wanted one for State
Senate Candidate Kelli Butler.
There are absolutely none left,
so I took one out of my own
yard.

 Here’s proof that I’m not the only one with a sense of humor.  Of course, I knocked.  And yes, I was given the go-ahead to plant a Fred DuVal For Governor sign, along with others.

Using the auto-dialer the conversations were similar to those at the office.  Some people hung up on me; some people expressed thanks for my volunteering to remind  them to get their early ballots back in the mail.  Here I'm on the phone at the LD 28 office next to Steve Slugocki, First Vice Chair of MCDP.

Now T-H-I-S Was A Thrill A Minute

There's not a single thing to say to honor these two giants other than what was said on Saturday night at this fabulous event.

I did manage to ask John Lewis if he could help me get in touch with two of the four friends who we have in common.  I know that Weldon Rougeau splits his time between Chicago and Washington, DC.
I know that Spiver Gordon is still working miracles in Greene County, Alabama.

But does anyone out there know how to locate Ronnie L. Moore and David Helper, both of SEDFRE?

NOT EXACTLY A THRILL A MINUTE

Sitting at the front desk and greeting people who walk in the door is just that.  But it has had its moments in the run-up to this week’s deadline for voter registration and getting on the Permanent Early Voter List.

Most of the time the forms are brought to me in batches, and the end result was certainly fabulous.  On the morning after the deadline I delivered to the County Recorder’s Office registration forms for 569 new voters and signed cards for 409 current voters to be added to the Permanent Early Voters List.

But this week there are examples that stand out.  One was a man who was brought to the office, Voter Registration form in hand, by his father-in-law.  In checking the form I saw that his birthplace was Oaxaca, Mexico.  Well, when I told him that I’d been there –probably before he was born—his eyes lit up.  We talked about the hotel on the town square where I stayed about 40 years ago, and the charreada (rodeo) that I attended. 

The other was a wonderful woman of a certain age who I met at a fund-raising party.  She wanted more than just yard signs.  Her problem is a woman with whom she plays cards every week, and who can't stop talking about her favorite Republican candidate for the State House of Representatives.

"I want to wear a T-shirt with Dr. Eric Meyer's name on it and sit across from her for the entire evening with her constantly looking at his name."

Done!!

Closer to home was what happened at 6:30 the other morning when I was getting into my car to go the gym.  A lady out walking her two dogs asked if I was the one who had left a message on her home phone asking about yard signs. 

“Yes,” she said.  “Gimme whatcha got,” was her request.