John Anthony La Pietra for
Fairer, Better Elections
Secretary of State * Green Party
386 Boyer Court * Marshall, MI 49068
http://members.triton.net/jalp/jalp4FBE.html
How to Help the Campaign
If you’re reading this page, you probably already saw the link above it on the home page – so you know how you can contribute money or in-kind services to the campaign. But if you can’t do that (or if you’ve already hit my self-imposed $100 limit), what else can you do to be a Politically Active Citizen?
Tell Your Friends
You probably know your friends better than I do – and they know you better than they do me, too. So I’d be delighted if you would vouch for me to them – whether that’s at the bus stop, the social club meeting, the office picnic, or the union hall; on your own blog, in a “what we did on our summer vacation” letter . . . whatever. (If you’re thinking about holding a formal, fancy fundraising event, there are lots of rules about that; you may want to check out Appendix F of the campaign-finance manual first . . . or just go to the Bureau of Elections “Publications and Forms” page, which has everything you might need. If you just want to sit down with your friends and invite them to contribute, that’s much simpler.)
If they agree with you, ask them to pass on the good word. If they have questions, answer them from the Website if you can find the information – but don’t hesitate to pass the question on to me. I’ll try to answer as soon as I can – even if the answer is, “Gee, that’s a good question – I don’t know; I’ll have to look into that.”
Tell Your Neighbors
You probably know your neighbors – oh, wait, we’ve sort of covered that already, haven’t we? Well, mostly . . . but if you get the urge to talk to them about me, or go walking door to door in some neighborhood, please tell me where you walked, when, what you did, with whom, and what results you had.
If you want to try on your own, lovely. Here [coming soon] is a copy of my basic flyer ready for you to print – complete with a reminder that you’re donating your labor to make the copies. If you want to create something of your own, please tell me about it – and attach or send me a copy. (Caution: it takes more time – or more help – than you might expect to cover both sides of all the streets in even one precinct or neighborhood.)
By the way . . . if you decide to expand far beyond your own neighborhood, and find you’ve spent over $100.01 or more advocating for me – or on any other single candidate – here’s the form you need to fill out to report your “independent expenditures”. Turn it in to the Bureau of Elections in Lansing within ten days after you top $100. (It comes with its own instructions – including a caution that, if you go over $500, you’ll be a PAC yourself – and will have to report like one.)
If you want to walk and work with someone else, please let me know – I’ll try to help and we can try to arrange a time to go door to door together. If you know of a group asking questions I should answer – or holding an event where I could show up and speak, hand out literature, etc. – talk to me. I can’t promise it’ll fit into my schedule – but I can promise I’ll get back to you.
Write a Letter to the Editor
Please feel free to write as often and as widely as the mood strikes you – and as the papers will allow. If you get a really good idea, please let me know! (If an editor thinks it’s good, too, please send me a copy – or tell me where I can find it.) And please help us all get and keep statewide letter-to-the-editor contact information up to date.
Get Registered to Vote
The deadline to register in time to be eligible to vote on Tuesday, November 2 is 30 days before that – October 3. But, since that’s a Sunday, you get one more day . . . until Monday, October 4. Want to check to see if you’re registered? Try either of the checks here.
What if you’ve moved since the last time you voted? Do you need to re-register? It depends.
• If you moved within a city, township, or village, and you didn’t change your registered address, you vote at your old precinct and fill out a change-of-address form there. You will get a new voter registration card with your new precinct location.
• If you moved outside of your old city/township/village, you must re-register in your new city, township, or village.
• If you move 60 days or less before the election (after September 3), you can vote one last time at your old precinct – but you must sign a cancellation form at that time.
One place to look for more details is this brochure.
Get Your Absentee Ballot
Michigan law doesn’t let just anyone vote absentee. (But wouldn’t it be fairer to people with less control over their working schedules, or their free time to wait in line, if it did?) You have to claim at least one of the six exceptions spelled out in the statute:
• You expect to be away all day from where you’re registered.
• You physically can’t get to the polling place without somebody else helping.
• Your religious beliefs prevent you from going to the polls.
• You’re serving as an election inspector in a different precinct than the one you vote at. (That’s why I had to vote absentee for the primary.)
• You’re 60 years of age or older.
• You’re confined to jail, awaiting arraignment or trial, so you can’t get to the polls. (Michigan doesn’t block formerly incarcerated people from voting, as some states do – but you can’t vote absentee or any other way while you’re serving a sentence.)
Even though these categories haven’t changed, claiming them is a bit harder than it used to be, at least in some parts of Michigan. State courts have ruled that it is against the law for a clerk to just send out absent-voter ballot application forms to all registered voters age 60 or over – for one thing, doing that discriminates against those in the other eligible categories. But clerks can include, in the notices they have to publish before each election, full instructions on how to apply for an absent-voter ballot.
You can mail or hand in a request for an absent-voter ballot to your local (city, village, or township) clerk up to 75 days before an election (we’re already past that date now) and as late as 2pm the Saturday before the election. (Don’t know who or where your local clerk is? Look up the proper office here.) This request has to be in writing – and signed by you – but there are three ways to apply:
• you can use the state’s form;
• you can use a Federal postcard form if you’re in active service in the US Armed Forces (or a qualifying spouse or dependent), or if you’re a US citizen living overseas; or
• you can just send in a letter (signed) with your name, address, and qualifying reason for voting absentee.
You should get your absent-voter ballot pretty fast; the Bureau recommends that local clerks process requests within 24 hours. Once you get it – well, I don’t want to be telling you how to vote, in any sense. So I’ll just say that, for more details on voting absentee – including who may and may not handle or see your ballot, and how you can make an “emergency” request if something happens at the last moment – look here.
Help Keep Track of the Race
Maybe you’ve heard about something one of the other candidates has said, or an activity they’re planning. Maybe a group you belong to is planning to survey all the candidates. Or maybe you’ve got an idea for something a Secretary of State should do, or something they do in other states, and you think maybe I should consider adopting it as part of my campaign. Please let me know. As usual, I won’t guarantee to take all suggestions I get – I won’t make promises I can’t keep – but I do promise to try to pay attention, and listen, to everyone.
Tell Me What Else You Want to Do
Have something else to ask about what you can do for this candidate, or what this candidate can do for you? Well, don’t “ask not”! Maybe it’s something I haven’t thought of at all. Or maybe it’s something somebody else suggested, and the two of you can work together to make it happen. Or maybe it’s something I just haven’t decided about.
For one example: Do you think there should be “JALP 4 FBE” yard signs? (Or mock license plates?) Are you willing to help deliver them – and their replacements? And clean them up after the election? Should I ask people to “buy” yard signs with a donation of so much per sign? (With or without wire?) Or should I wait until I have X requests before ordering signs? Or would it be a more efficient use of paper – and other scarce campaign resources – to rent a billboard or three?
John Anthony La Pietra for
Fairer, Better Elections
Secretary of State * Green Party
386 Boyer Court * Marshall, MI 49068
http://members.triton.net/jalp/jalp4FBE.html
revised: August 11, 2010