REV-UP-National-Organizing-Call-CART-Transcript

And we're hoping that after today's call, that we'll be able to elicit more support from the states to not only do voter registration and get out to vote activities between now and Novem

American Association of Persons with Disabilities

REV UP National Organizing Call

Thursday, September 8, 2016

3:00 – 4:00 p.m EST

Remote CART Captioning

Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) captioning is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings This transcript is being provided in rough-draft format.

www.hometeamcaptions.com

>> Zach Baldwin: Mute all of the lines, and then we'll officially get started a minute or two after 3 p.m

Hi, folks Thanks for joining today's call We're still a little bit before

3 p.m so we're going to wait another minute or two to let folks dial in, and then we'll get started

Hi, folks Thanks for joining today's call We're going to give it another minute or two to let some more folks dial in and then we'll get started

Hello, everyone Thank you for joining today's REV UP national organizing call We're going to go ahead and get started here Before we jump into the call, just a few housekeeping items before we get started Please keep your phones on mute to help us maintain a clear conference line so that everyone can hear the

presenters and that we can get through the question and answer period at the end Remote CART is available for this call A link was sent out to all participants who

registered for the call If you know of somebody who needs the link and does not have

it, please forward the link to them or ask them to send an E-mail to me My E-mail address is zbaldwin@aapd.com, and I'm happy to forward the CART link to them

Finally, I'd like to let everyone know that we are going to record this conference call, and once we finish the call, we'll have the recording and the transcript sent out to all the participants and posted to the Web site

>> The recording has started

>> Zach Baldwin: And there we go The recording has started So without further ado, I would like to turn it over to Helena Berger, the president and CEO

of the AAPD

>> Helena Berger: Thank you, everyone And welcome, everybody We are really excited and thrilled that you could join us today We had about a hundred people register for the call, so we're really pleased and making sure

that we have our voiced heard on election day on November 8th The REV UP

campaign, some of you may not be aware of what REV UP is about First of all, it stands for register, educate, vote, use your power The genesis of REV UP was a state effort that was started by Bob Kafka and our friends in Texas, and then I guess it was around the early part of 2017, they basically handed over the reins to AAPD to

coordinate REV UP on a national basis The goals of REV UP are, for the most part, I think, three-fold We obviously want to get more folks with disabilities registered We want to make sure that we're doing get out to vote activities So we're getting people to the polls ask they're voting But we really want to make sure that we're increasing our influence and political power Since we started this endeavor, we have about 20 states that have been doing some sort of voting REV UP activities, and we're pleased with that And we're hoping that after today's call, that we'll be able to elicit more support from the states to not only do voter registration and get out to vote activities between now and November 8th, but really stay engaged and energized and connected so that we're influential back in our own state

Back in 2012, 15.6 million people with disabilities voted That was larger than the Latino and Asian votes combined I think we probably all agree that that was pretty good But, when you think that there will be 35 million eligible voters with disabilities in 2016, I think it's fair to say that we can, and we must do better Between now and November 8th, our immediate focus is on voter registration and get out to vote activities Our ultimate goal is to help organize state cross disability voting coalitions and build an infrastructure that will last well beyond November 8th so that we continue to influence election outcomes and policy decision making at all levels of government I mean, obviously our collective action and efforts make us stronger, more powerful, and more effective

Regarding voter registration, I think it's important to mention that the rules vary state by state Anywhere from 7 to 30 days out from the election, folks can register So it's going to be really important that you're aware of your state voter registration deadlines, and clearly time is of the essence, because we're basically

talking about by the end of October it will be too late to register and vote in just about every state

As I was thinking about this call today, I thought about a quote by Martin Luther King, Jr that I thought was very appropriate He said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." Now, I'm going to repeat that again "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." So clearly this election matters, the disability vote matters, our issues matter So as we like

to say, the A at the AAPD, it's really time to REV UP, gets folks registered, get folks voting, make our voices heard and our vote count And again, we've been really

pleased with the participation that we've seen around the country to date, but I think again if we really want to have or make a real difference in this election, we need really everybody on the phone today participating in this effort So again, I appreciate your time today I appreciate everything that you've been doing back in your state, and we look forward to continuing to work with all of you to make sure that the disability vote counts in 2016

>> Zach Baldwin: Great Thank you, Helena Now I want to turn over the call to Bob Kafka from REV UP Texas and Texas AAPD to share a little bit more about his vision for the REV UP campaign Bob?

>> Bob Kafka: Yeah Thanks, Zach What really brought about REV UP in Texas is that we had a campaign where our attorney general, who's a

paraplegic, is running for governor, and Wendy Davis, the Democrat, was high profile, and, you know, so the interest we thought in the disability community would be very, very high, and we brought together a bunch of people to talk about we did a

disabilities issues forum, but one of the things that really drove the REV UP campaign is something that I say all the time, you know, Tip O'Neill said all politics are local, and what that means is that yes, you know, you have to vote nationally, get out to vote, but really, the way the elections are configured, it's really how you're doing in the state I mean, that's why you see today that kicking off the battle ground states, and the other thing that drove it was the fact that if you go and watch politics at all, you know, they have masses of voting lists that they can outreach to And so one of the things that we really attempted to do besides bringing everybody together, because, you know, every everybody had their own little diverse voting-type project but there really was no

statewide at least in Texas vocal point and so we got primarily with our Disability Rights Texas and created the REV UP Texas campaign, where we brought together some of their already good information on disability rights, but also added some of the things about how we define the disability vote, because, you know, the issue isn't that people with disabilities don't vote The real issue, candidates wanted to know, is will you vote for me if we take the right position, you know, because like we've said so many times, you know, we crisscross all the various ethnic groups in terms of, you know, female, male, gay, transgender, Hispanic, Latino, African-American, you know I mean,

we cross all that, but the one thing that we don't have, or I didn't see on the state or national level, or at least it hadn't been developed where it should be, was the need to have a recognized group that would be seen as pushing disability rights and services Many of the groups that we work with were 501(c)3, so we had to do something that was not taking specific positions, but we could, you know, basically do issues for them and things that would turn out the vote And so REV UP was really, in its beginning, was to build a sort of structure that we hope to build on past November 8th because as

we all know, there are very many of the things we pass in Washington have to be implemented by the state And Texas is notorious for not doing what the federal

government wants it to do So it's not just the presidential election, but all the state, legislature and down the ticket So it was really the beginning was to build a structure that would last, like Helena said, past November 8th so that we could start outreaching, get voter lists of people with disabilities, and we have some ideas of where you can outreach to get large numbers of voters So the REV UP was sort of a way to build cross-disability coalitions on voting, and we had quite a bit of interest in our last election, and we've been building up for the November 8th and beyond So I'll stop there, and if you have any questions, we can take it at the end

>> Zach Baldwin: Great Thanks, Bob And thanks for the reminder about questions When we get towards the end of the call, we'll have a time for a question and answer period so if you do have a question, please keep it in mind or jot down a note, and we'll be sure to get to it at the end of the call

Next, I would like to turn the call over to Carole Tonks, the executive director of the Alliance Center for Independence and part of REV UP, New Jersey Carole? Carole, remember you need to unmute yourself to start presenting We can't hear you yet Carole, are you still on the line?

All right, folks Sorry about that Looks like we may be having a bit

of a technical difficulty there Carole, if you do come back on at any point, please

unmute yourself and let me know and we'll be happy to transition the call over to you While we're waiting for there, I'll move on to the next item on our agenda and give you talk about some resources and ideas for participating in National Voter Registration Day

By now I hope everyone is aware that a bit later in this month, on September 27th, is the official date for National Voter Registration Day, and this is a large-scale, national effort coming out of the National Association of Secretaries of State to really have a more concerted effort to get more voters all voters registered, more people

registered to participate in the upcoming election The REV UP campaign wanted to get involved with this because we had so much success with National Disability Voter

Registration Day and I just got a note that Carole is unmuted Carole, if you're on, I'll turn it back over to you and then jump back into my section Carole?

All right Looks like we're still having trouble with that one Sorry, folks

So back to what I was saying, the REV UP campaign is hoping to get involved with National Voter Registration Day to build off of all the success we had with National Disability Voter Registration Week back in July So we want to get

everyone engaged with this day and activated to do more voter registration, so a few ideas on how to get involved here You can host a voter registration event If you are a center for independent living or another organization that has headquarters or an office you can use, you can actually open your doors to do voter registration and have folks come in, and you can work with your local board of elections to get the proper forms to register voters, or using online forms I would encourage everybody who's interested in hosting an event to reach out to their local board of elections just to check on any

registration requirements There are a couple of states where you need to go through a training in order to register voters, so we want to make sure that you are abiding by the law and checking on that in your state before you register voters

Another option is to connect with an existing voter registration event being held in your area If you actually go to nationalvoterregistrationday.org/events, you can see the list of voter registration events that are happening all around the

country It's a great way to get involved If you don't have a physical location you can use or you don't have the resources or the capacity to host your own event So you can see if there's another organization that's hosting an event in your area and reach up to them and try to amplify our efforts by working collaboratively

Another option for registering voters, if you can't do the event or you don't have a local partner in your area, you can also do voter registration online AAPD partnered with Rock the Vote to offer an online voter registration tool It's

available at AAPD's Web site, which is aapd.com/REVUP You can go through and get yourself or anyone else registered online If you are in a state that does online voter registration, this tool will redirect you to the proper portal to complete your registration online If you're in a state that doesn't have online voter registration yet, the Rock the

Vote tool will direct you to the appropriate forms that you need to fill out, print out, and then turn in to your board of elections

I would also encourage everyone to take a look at their voter registration deadlines to make sure you're not missing out The mail-in deadlines are most of them are coming up in early to late October You can see the exact deadlines for your state at USA.gov They are a great resource for there They show the deadline for register by mail, as well as whether you can register in person on election day in your state, and there's a handful of states that you can do that, I want to say 10 to 12,

so definitely check that out to be informed for yourself and definitely any folks that you're working with

I'm going to pause one more time to check in and see if Carole was able to join us

[Siren]

>> Zach Baldwin: If anyone could please mute your own lines I don't think I heard Carole, but I heard a fire truck in the background

All right Thank you, folks Looks like we're still having some technical difficulties there

Moving on to some other ways that you can participate in National Voter Registration Day, if you're not able to do a voter registration event or do online voter registration, or if you want to do something in addition to that, activating your social media network is another great way to get involved National Voter Registration Day has a partner tool kit that they've put together as a whole host of sample social media posts and graphics that you can use They've made it pretty easy for everyone to get engaged and spread the word Also, just going around and, you know, asking all of your friends and family and co-workers and everybody you know if they are registered

to vote You'd be surprised You may just assume that people are registered to vote, but you never know And part of what we want to do is try to get as many people as possible registered

>> Carole Tonks: Excuse me, Zach, can you hear me?

>> Zach Baldwin: Is that Carole?

>> Carole Tonks: Oh, my gosh! Yes! I've been trying I was unmuted I don't know what happened!

>> Zach Baldwin: Well, we're not going to worry about that now I will now gladly turn the call over to Carole Tonks, executive direct of the Alliance Center for Independence and part of REV UP, New Jersey

>> Carole Tonks: Oh, my gosh I'm so sorry, everybody, I'm not sure what happened, but thank you for bearing with me with my technical difficulties

Zach already covered a lot of what I was going to cover, but what I guess I will talk to everybody about is some of the activities that we've been doing in Jersey as a center for independent living We're one of 11 centers throughout the state

So as a non-profit, we're mandated to be offering voter registration anyway, and we do that throughout the year We keep registration forms in the reception area We guide people to, you know, any online division of elections or board of elections who may have online registration forms So I'm sure many of you do that But we were really excited when we heard from Bob to be an organizer of REV UP in New Jersey, so I just want to share with you some of the things that we did that seem to be working here for us It's

not without its challenges Certainly organizing people is can be difficult, in any sense, but I think as we get closer to the election, we're seeing more and more people being interested We're also we had three first-time three people registered this week who are going to be first-time voters So that's always really exciting

So one of a few of the things that we did to get kind of jersey motivated and a little kick start was we first started by setting up a Facebook page, and

we also put out an eNewsletter And we do a lot with social media because a lot of people can't always get out, or our hard copy mailing list doesn't always reach the people we need to reach, so we found that anybody who is familiar with Facebook, it's pretty easy to set up a page And we did that separately from our agency Facebook page And we invited a bunch of people to, you know, like our page, get involved, and kind of sign a pledge that they wanted to be involved and they would be voting on

November 8th So the second thing we did, following the lead of some of the other REV

UP states was we organized a planning committee to discuss ways that we could get people with disabilities participating in the election So we sent out invitations to all of our sister centers for independent living, as well as service providers, disability Rights New Jersey who, in other states may be just known as protection and advocacy The New Jersey Council on Developmental Disabilities, and, of course, voting rights

advocates So we've met twice since then, and we go back and forth with E-mails as

we go through this, but we plan on keeping in touch as we get through the election, so that will kind of be our core group that we hope to branch out after the election So the committee came up with a few things that they wanted to do, and the first was a REV

UP kickoff event at the state house, and we received a small amount of funding from our Developmental Disabilities Council in New Jersey, and that was able to cover for us like promo items, T-shirts and signs and, you know, a little bit of money for voter registration and education events So we held that, and of course on that day, it was 105 degrees in New Jersey, which typically doesn't happen, so we didn't have as large of a turnout as

we wanted We had 34 people, I believe, but it was a good event We had

assemblymen talk We had people with disabilities telling their stories We had

exhibitor tables, League of Women Voters It was just a good day Obviously offering voter registration to people, and talking about the importance of getting involved

We also had a large poster which was "I Pledge to Vote," on November 8th and we had people signing that We still have that in our office so when

we have events here, we have people sign it and it gives us a reason to talk about voting as they come in

We also organized a Trump call-in day, and this was really to urge the Trump Campaign to complete the respectability questionnaire that was out, and a lot

of people were feeling that that campaign was being dismissive of people with

disabilities It was nonpartisan We really wanted it because we want people to be educated and we tell by those questions, and AAPD has a question out, we'll be

pushing that for people to, you know, in order to educate themselves on how to vote, they want to know what the issues are and where our candidates stand So we

estimated about a hundred people called or E-mailed We still follow up Nothing came from that I will tell you all We follow up every couple of weeks We also went out and

we visited the New Jersey Trump Headquarters and we brought the questionnaire out Nothing happened with that We are following up and we are planning on what we want

to do as he's opening up another headquarters in New Jersey and we're going to go in with the AAPD questionnaire and also we're talking about a demonstration

So that's where we're at with that, and we felt that's also people were really into this, and it was a good you know, it was a good plan to engage

people, I guess, because, you know, it's important We want to educate ourselves on this The rest of the New Jersey CILs, everybody got together, all of the directors, and

we discussed it, and every cell is either doing at least one voter registration or education event in the county Most are doing about three events each Our agency, we're doing

5 voter education workshops, and we're doing two strictly voter registration days and we've also done a voting booth demonstration, and people like that, it's learning how for first-time voters, it's getting familiar with the voting booth and the voting machines and the board of elections will come out to your organization and bring this out and talk about how to use it, and that's always been successful for us

Through the Developmental Disabilities Council, we were able to get a small amount of money that we were able to distribute to each of the centers for independent living to help them with some promo items and things for their events around the state, so we're really proud that we could say that voter education and registration is going on statewide in Jersey

So the other thing that we did is we are the organizers of New Jersey Disability Pride Parade We decided to invite the candidates, and we have heard from Clinton's camp that they are interested and we are in communication with them so we'll keep everybody posted on that We're planning a debate-watching party for the first debate, and we were able to find questions that will kind of stimulate discussion from the Commission for Presidential Debates Web site They had a lot of really good information on how to host one of these debate-watching parties So we put that out there, inviting people to come and sit with us and watch the debate, and also we're going to be inviting some local press to join us, because we want them to know the reactions of people with disabilities on some of these issues

As Bob has said and Zach had said, once the election is over, we want to continue meeting in New Jersey we have the governor's race next year so for

us it's really important to keep the momentum going, keep people involved, get our voices heard, so we keep pushing for that, and we continually encourage our members

to volunteer for whatever candidate they're choosing, become poll workers We have a lot of people who work the polls now, which is another good thing

So that's kind of what we're doing in jersey I know we all struggle with time and budgets, but it really is an opportunity to effect change, to organize

people This is our effort to kind of close the gap and have our voices heard, and for the centers for independent living out there, it is systems advocacy, it's one of our core services and we should be doing it

So thank you, everybody Sorry, again, about the mix-up, and I would certainly be happy to answer any questions

>> Zach Baldwin: Great Thank you so much, Carole I'm extremely grateful that we got a chance to have you on the call You have a lot of really great information to share about what New Jersey is doing I think a lot of great

examples and some ideas that hopefully folks on this call can take back and try to replicate to some extent I want to jump back in oh, great, yeah, you're welcome

I want to jump back in to some of the resources and ideas I was sharing before, just to close out there Carole mentioned that the REV UP campaign recently released a presidential candidate questionnaire This is something done in conjunction between the REV UP campaign, AAPD and the National Council on

Independent Living It's a pretty comprehensive questionnaire that we sent to all of the presidential candidates that are on more than 20 state ballots And we're putting

pressure on the campaigns to respond We're asking all of our folks to help us do that

by signing on to a letter, as well as tweeting to the candidates, all of that information, sample tweets and where to sign on, so the letter is available on AAPD's Web site, aapd.com/REVUP It's also on our Facebook and twitter profiles and I'll be sending it to everybody on the call, so we'll make sure that nobody is missing out there

The last thing I wanted to say about participating in national voter registration day is to the extent that you can, please try to collect data about the number

of people that you're registering The folks who organize national voter registration day will be reaching out to everyone who registered through their site as a partner to collect this data, and I would also like to ask everyone to report back to the REVUP campaign that data It's one of the things that really makes a constituency powerful is when you can show the numbers behind a group of people organizing together, and then it's challenging I don't think we have the infrastructure in place quite yet, but we're at a place where we want to get started, and so any numbers that you have, you know, if you have an event and you registered ten people, send that my way It definitely helps

us build momentum

>> Helena Berger: And I just want to add to what Zach was saying and I think Bob made a reference to this in his remarks You want to gather that contact information and have that list because part of the get out to vote activities is, you know, reaching out to the people that you registered and actually making sure they get to the polls and seeing, you know, what kind of accommodations they may need to get to the polls, so if they need transportation and you are an ILC that has access to an accessible van, you know, you can get them maybe the transportation they need So again, you know, part of what we're doing is trying to get a lot more sophisticated with the way that we're doing our voter registration and get out to vote activities, like many other

constituencies, sort of our other brothers and sisters out there, but again, just for your own list building, and again, just for your own get out to vote activities, it's really

important to capture that information and have that contact info

>> Zach Baldwin: Thanks for adding that, Helena I just want to run through a couple other resources that may be helpful to you as you're working to do voter registration work, and then we'll move to close out and the question and answer period

All the resources I'm about to go through, I will be sending in an E-mail to everyone on the call, so don't worry about trying to take notes too closely

First off, I mentioned earlier, voter registration deadline, usa.gov is

a great resource because you can see the deadlines for registering by mail as well as whether you can register in person Definitely something you want to have on hand as you're conducting voter registration events, either in person or online, or just promoting

it through your social media and E-mail channels

The National Voter Registration Day partner tool kit is a fantastic resource put together by the folks who run National Voter Registration Day They've got logos, social media graphics, posters, sample social media posts, templates for press releases and op eds, a field tool kit that includes a volunteer script and sign-up forms, voter I.D wallet cards that give you more information about the types of I.D you need to bring with you to vote, as well as guidelines around doing voter registration work as a 501(c)3 non-profit I also mentioned earlier the events directory for National Voter Registration Day A great way to find events in your area or if you're planning to hold your own event, you can also register your event there, publicize it, another way to folks

to connect with you

Non-profit Vote is another great resource This organization is specifically focused on conducting non-profit organizations to conduct voter registration, education and outreach They have a whole voter engagement resource library, section specifically on voter registration, and they're just a great resource to go to if you're a non-profit organization You have to you know, we have to be careful to make sure that we remain non-partisan and non-profit vote is a great place to go to help you do that

Last but not least, the REV UP campaign is another wonderful resource We have a voter resource center It's got tools, resources and tools for voter registration, education for getting to the polls, casting a ballot, making sure you can access the polls, as well as some tools to amplify the power of the disability vote, how to get engaged and involved We also have our list of state resources and events Carole

is a great example of a state partner who's sent me a lot of information about events going on in New Jersey One of the states that's got a more comprehensive list of events there, but this is a great place to go to if you want to see who's organizing in your state Or some upcoming events in your state, or if you have your own event, I would

be more than happy to add it to the list and help you promote it

So again I know I ran through that rather quickly but I'll be sending that out in an E-mail after the call, and I want to turn it back over to Helena for some closing remarks, and then we'll jump into a question and answer session Helena?

>> Helena Berger: Thanks, Zach Yeah, I know that we've thrown I think a lot of information out to everybody, but as Zach has said, you'll be getting

E-mails and you can certainly go to the AAPD Web site and get a lot of this information And we're available, you know, after today to certainly have a conversation and continue the dialogue, and I guess that's a good segue into what's next in our agenda today is really to talk about this call is not, again, the end of the dialogue We are happy to set

up calls with folks in the states who want to drill down a little more about, you know, get out to vote activities And what you can be doing in your state and to, you know, try to help and facilitate that process as much as possible So for folks out there who may be interested in having that follow-up conversation, again, AAPD and Bob Kafka and some other folks I think will be willing to, again, jump on a call and drill down on some of this stuff and see how we can really not just help you between now and November 8th, but again, really implement our bigger goal as far as organizing the cross-disability voting coalitions, you know, around the country So I would imagine, if you are interested I think the best way to do that is to send an E-mail to Zach, which, again, is

zbaldbin@aapd.com and everybody will be getting his E-mail address shortly and just let us know and we will work on setting up calls

>> Zach Baldwin: Thanks, Helena I'm going to enable

>> Bob Kafka: Zach, can I just make one comment? A lot of this, like Helena said, seems overpowering, but I know Carole and some of the other REV UPS across the country just started with one or two people calling a meeting, you know,

it you know, some people are way down the line and doing a lot more, but that

wouldn't stop you from doing that It's the beauty of having AAPD coordinate

information, because their Web site is a wealth of information, so you can do events and just have the materials already there, and the other thing is is that the cross-disability aspect of it is really so powerful So I just wanted to if people thought, oh, wow, all this stuff, I have so much going on, you know, in my state, how can I do another thing, really, start small, and like the movie, "Build it and they will come," I think that is

something that we started in Texas I know Carole started very small, and it's I think you'll be surprised how many folks in your state are also interested So that's all Thank you

>> Zach Baldwin: Thank you so much, Bob

So now we've got some time left before the hour is up, so I'm going

to enable the question and answer period, or session Once I do, you can press star 6

to enter the queue to ask a question, and we'll just take them from there

>> Q & A session has started To ask your question, please press star 6

>> Zach Baldwin: Please press star 6 and we'll be happy to take your question

>> I hope we didn't scare everybody away

>> Zach Baldwin: Okay Well, I suppose there's no questions, which is quite all right You are more than welcome to reach out over E-mail or call me directly to ask a question, or, as Helena mentioned earlier, we'd be happy to set up another call with you or other folks in your state who are starting to organize

So I guess with that, I'll give everyone back 18 minutes of your day, and

>> Helena Berger: And I just want to make one last plug for the presidential questionnaire that was developed by AAPD and the REV UP campaign again You'll be getting this information in an E-mail, but I do hope that organizations are able to sign on because that's going to be again a powerful message that we could send to all of these campaigns for those nominees that are or candidates, I should say, who maybe need a little impetus to fill out the questionnaire So we would really, really appreciate you signing on, as well as Facebooking and tweeting out to the

campaign to motivate them to complete the questionnaire and to remind them that there are 35 million eligible voters with disabilities out there, and if they want our vote, you know, that they need to let us know what their policies and priorities and initiatives are

as it pertains to people with disabilities So on that note, again, I want to thank

everybody for their time, and

>> Zach Baldwin: I'm going to interrupt I think we may just have

an error in my usage of running through the Q & A system I believe I've enabled a