• Thursday, August 20, 2020
• 6 PM
• 1701 Browns Store Road, Heathsville, VA 22473.  

Please note the time change from our normally scheduled meeting time due to the meeting being outside. 

We ask the following things for your safety while attending this meeting:

• Must Wear A Mask,
• bring your own chair,
• confine yourself to your socially distanced designated area,
• bring your own refreshments.
• Bathroom will be open to all who attend.

• Northumberland County Democrat’s election activity,
• Qasim Rashad Democratic nominee for Congress will speak,
• Mark Warner has been invited, and may attend depending if the U. S. Senate is not in session. 

One of the greatest, bravest and kindest men to ever live passed away today: John Robert Lewis, the son of sharecroppers who survived a brutal beating by police during a landmark 1965 march in Selma, Alabama, to become a towering figure of the civil rights movement and a longtime US congressman, has died after a six-month battle with cancer. He was 80.

The best thing any of us can do to honor Lewis is to VOTE !!!!

The history of the right to vote in America is a history of conflict, of struggling for the right to vote.  Many people died trying to protect that right.   I was beaten, and jailed because I stood up for it.  For millions like me, the struggle for the right to vote is not mere history; it is experience.  We should not take a step backward with new poll taxes and voter ID laws and barriers to voting.  We must ensure every vote and every voter counts. 

The vote is the most powerful, non-violent tool we have in a democratic society.  We must not allow the power of the vote to be neutralized.  We must never go back. 

— John Lewis

Several folks in our area use a post office box to receive their mail, some do not even have a mailbox at their home.

This has led to some confusion with census documents because the Census Bureau DOES NOT send mail to PO boxes.

If you are concerned about not receiving mail about voting, you can modify your voter registration information to include a PO box as your mailing address.  The voter registration application REQUIRES you to enter a residence address, however, there also is a place down in the center of the form where you enter a PO box as you MAILING address.

Attached is a copy of the current Virginia voter registration form.  In the upper area where you enter name and address, this MUST be your residence address, NOT a PO box.  However, look down the form to Section 4 — check the second box and enter your PO box as your preferred mailing address.  Read the form carefully — it’s really quite simple.

VA-NVRA-1-Voter-Registration-Application-rev-4_1-(1)

You can also update your registration information on line at the State Board of Elections website:  https://www.elections.virginia.gov/

If you have any questions, contact your county General Registrar.

• Northumberland County:  (804) 580-4655
• Lancaster County:   (804) 462-5277
• Richmond County:  (804) 333-4772

Dear Northumberland County Democrat,

You are cordially invited to attend Tomorrow’s Membership Meeting conducted by ZOOM.  Below are the links to allow you into our meeting.

I thank you very much for your attendance in advanced.

Sincerely yours,

Frank Kober, Ed. D, Chair

Topic: NOCO DEM Membership

Time: Jul 16, 2020 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

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Meeting ID: 889 6389 4690

Password: 584249

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June 23:

US Senate and US House of Representatives Primary Election

Governor Northam has used his statutory authority to postpone the June 9 primary election to June 23. It is possible, if the COVID-19 pandemic has not receded by June 23, the primary may be delayed further.

To summarize the June 23 primary:

• Vangie Williams
• Qashim Rashid 

Absentee Voting

In-person absentee voting

You can cast an absentee ballot in-person — if you will not be able to go to the polls on June 23, or, if you want to avoid crowds due to COVID-19 restrictions, you may vote in-person at the Northumberland County Voter Registrar’s office:

• 45 Back Street, Heathsville
• Small white building across from the Sonabank on Hwy 360 in Heathsville; big oak tree, identifying sign in front yard.
• Handicapped entrance in rear
• Back Street is the small street beside the building.
• Currently the building is closed to the public, but you can still vote absentee in person, register to vote, or check any other voting information.  Drive around to the back of the building, push the doorbell button on the back door, and the Registrar or and Assistant Registrar will come out to assist you.

November 3, 2020 general election

• President
• VP
• Senate
• House of Representatives

• District 2 (if you vote at St Stephens, this is you), and,
• District 3 (if you vote at Fairfields Methodist in Burgess, this is you).

Roanoke College is out with a new poll this morning. Here are the key results, which are overwhelmingly great news for Democrats and bad news for Trump and Virginia Republicans.

• “Former Vice President Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump by 12 percentage points (51%-39%) in Virginia”

• “In what was then a hypothetical matchup, Biden led Trump 48%-40% in February.” So Biden’s up from +8 points then to +12 points now.
• “More than 90 percent of Democrats and Democratic leaners said they would vote for Biden, while just under 90 percent of Republicans and their leaners said they would vote for Trump. Only 2 percent in each party said they would cross over to vote for the other party’s candidate. Only 2 percent said they were unsure about their vote, while 8 percent said they would vote for another candidate.” (NOTE: These results are *strongly* in line with Professor Rachel Bitecofer’s “negative partisanship” model)
• “A majority of Virginians (54%) disapprove of the way President Trump is handling his job, while just over one-third (36%) approve.”
• “A majority (61%) of respondents think the country is on the wrong track, while 33 percent think it is headed in the right direction, which is significantly more negative than the last measurement in February 2020.”
• By a 63%-20% margin, Virginians disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job.
•  “U.S. Senator Mark Warner leads his undetermined Republican opponent (48%-31%).”

• “Job approval for Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam soared to 59 percent, up from 40 percent in February, while 29 percent disapprove of his performance.” This is up from 40%-41% in February 2020 and 32%-39% in February 2019.

• “More than half (57%) of respondents think that Virginia is headed in the right direction while 37 percent think it is on the wrong track.”

June 23:

US Senate and US House of Representatives Primary Election

Governor Northam has used his statutory authority to postpone the June 9 primary election to June 23. It is possible, if the COVID-19 pandemic has not receded by June 23, the primary may be delayed further.

To summarize the June 23 primary:

• Vangie Williams
• Qashim Rashid 

Absentee Voting

In-person absentee voting

You can cast an absentee ballot in-person — if you will not be able to go to the polls on June 23, or, if you want to avoid crowds due to COVID-19 restrictions, you may vote in-person at the Northumberland County Voter Registrar’s office:

• 45 Back Street, Heathsville
• Small white building across from the Sonabank on Hwy 360 in Heathsville; big oak tree in front yard.  Signs will be in place by late May.
• Back Street is the small street beside the building.  Drive around to the back of the building, push the doorbell button on the back door, and the Registrar or and Assistant Registrar will come out to assist you.

November general election

• President
• VP
• Senate
• House of Representatives

• District 2 (if you vote at St Stephens, this is you), and,
• District 3 (if you vote at Fairfields Methodist in Burgess, this is you).

Fredericksburg area Democratic Committees are sponsoring a Democratic Congressional candidates’ forum:

• Saturday, May 9
• 10:00 AM

The candidates are:

• Vangie Williams
• Qasim Rashid    (NOTE:  If you are using Microsoft Edge web browser, you may get a virus warning — the site is safe, this is a glitch in the browser.)

This post is from Alex Call on Heather Cox Richardson’s Facebook page. This is what we are up against until Nov.

(NOTE:  If you are not familiar with the work of Heather Cox Richardson, Professor of History at Boston College, follow the link above to her Facebook page, and, read her daily commentary at this link.)

There are six months left until the most consequential presidential election since 1860. Not since that year, when Lincoln’s election eventually led to the preservation of the Union, has the nation been so at odds with itself, or closer to armed civil strife. The election follows hard on the heels of the most traumatic pandemic since the Influenza of 1918-1919. The news is all about COVID19 and has provided cover for the Trumpublican Right to fire the opening salvos in what promises to be the most bitter, lie-filled, angry, and dirty campaign season we have seen in our lifetimes.

Trump is reaping the hatred he has sown for the last five years. He is rightly reviled by normal folks. His poll numbers, never good, are sinking and he is behind Joe Biden in the key swing state polls. His terrible mishandling of the COVID19 crisis is obvious and carries the same marks as all his “governance”: blatant mendacity, incompetence, and callous disregard for the lives of citizens. But let’s not get sidetracked talking about Trump’s personal failures right now; we all know all about him. The bigger issue is how the Trumpublicans are going to fight this to- the- death war.

The Right plays dirty, they play to kill, and they know they must at all costs not lose power or they will face political marginalization for a long time. We outnumber them 60-40. In order to keep their minority rule, they are playing for keeps. We Dems tend to shoot ourselves in the groin with circular firing squads aimed at our own candidates instead of firing relentlessly at the actual enemy: Trump and the Trumpublicans. We must not ever forget what their tactics are: distract, divide, sew doubt and confusion, and push outrageous, outright lies. They are also masters at bringing forth seeming liberal voices to attack Dems.

Case in point: the absurd allegations of sexual assault against Joe Biden. This is classic distraction from Trump’s own well-chronicled, though completely unpunished, sexual misconduct and his falling numbers and failing grades for COVID19. The right has found a voice in Ruth Marcus, a centrist Wa-Po columnist who is leading the charge against Biden, even though the accuser’s story simply doesn’t hold up. Dems, do the “math”. Trump, who has terrible numbers among women voters, needs a distraction and gets one by painting Biden, who is scandal- free, as a sexual predator, which he is not. Dems go on alarm crying for investigations! Biden was VP for eight years; he’s been vetted! Fools.

Fools, fools we are. If we can’t see through this obvious ploy, designed to drive Biden’s numbers down and suppress turnout, then we will be easily torpedoed and sunk when the more serious fake “allegations” come hurtling like doomsday meteors at us as we get closer to Nov 3rd.
Trump is laughing into his Putin-phone. McConnell? Laughing into his Conservative-Judge-confirming shell.

Case number two: the protests at state capitols by armed militias demanding the “freedom”: to get infected and infect others. Give me a break. These idiots are organized by email trees and easily prodded into action by FOX, et al. They should be stopped on public health grounds alone. But the signal that is being sent to both their conspiracy-addled, camo-wearing, gun-toting compatriots on the Right and the rest of us sane people is that, “We are mad as hell, armed, we threaten violence, and we are coming this fall”. This is classic, though hyped-up, Republican voter suppression. Are we going to internally cower at the thought of these fools with their AR15’s? Many of them are saying they want a new civil war. VOTE.

Folks, it’s just beginning, and I already fear we are not paying attention. How many of you didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton because they believed “a little” in the
child-eating “scandal”? How many of us decided not to bother voting because, ”both sides are the same”? How many thought Hillary was just as bad as Trump, and what about her emails? This is nothing compared to what we going to see coming at us in the next six months.

Europeans couldn’t believe what was happening in Germany in 1933. Many hoped it would pass, but it was seen as madness, and madness it was. A similar madness has gripped our country and it must be stopped. Hitler and Goebbels were clever, but they did not have FOX News or the unbridled, open spaces of the internet to peddle their conspiracies, their hatreds, and their obfuscations, and to hide their actual subterfuge of our American Democracy. Our Democracy is at stake and it can easily slip away. Trump and his followers are fighting for complete domination and they plan to win and not give up power.

We must be aware right now of their ruthless campaigns of disinformation, lies, increasingly violent-looking protests, legal challenges in the Trump-appointed courts, and concealed criminal machinations. It is coming; it is here. Be awake and aware. Speak out, fight back.

Vote blue, no matter who.  Get your family, friends and neighbors to the polls and vote blue, no matter who!!!