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Information on How to Vote for Oregonians Displaced by Wildfires

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SALEM, OR — Secretary of State Bev Clarno issued the following statement in response to the wildfires and to ensure all displaced Oregonians are able to receive their ballot and vote this November.

“The families and communities affected by the devastating wildfires across Oregon are in my thoughts and prayers. Our team at Secretary of State stands ready to help both in the immediate response and long-term recovery efforts to come.

For any Oregonians displaced from their home and concerned about voting in the General Election this November, rest assured we have a plan and are working closely with local election officials to ensure you can receive your ballot, vote, and make your voices heard.”

For frequently asked questions, visit oregonvotes.gov/fires.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I receive my ballot if I have been displaced by wildfires?

  1. Ballots will start being mailed October 14. If you know an address where you will be able to receive mail then, you can add a temporary mailing address at oregonvotes.gov/myvote.
  2. If you want, you may also use this paper form to provide us with a temporary address.
  3. You can pick up all of your mail (including ballots once they are mailed) at the post office that serves your permanent residence address.
  4. Contact your county election office after October 1 for additional options they may have for pickup. Find your county election office here.

If I submit a change of address through USPS, will my ballot be forwarded to the new address?

No. Ballots are unable to be forwarded. It is one of the security features of our system. You must inform election officials of your temporary address using one of the methods above in order to have your ballot sent there.

Do I need to register to vote from my temporary address?

No. You do not need to re-register to vote if you are living somewhere temporarily because you have been displaced by wildfires. You just need to let us know where to mail your ballot by one of the methods above.

Will I be able to vote on the local measures where my permanent address is located, even if I am temporarily living outside that area?

Yes. The ballot you receive will contain the contests for your residential address, not your temporary mailing address.

What if my mailbox was destroyed?

If mail cannot be delivered to your home or mailbox, it will be held at your local post office and you can pick it up there.

 

Voter Registration Information for Victims of Recent Fires

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If you have lost your home, or been permanently displaced because of the fires, we want to remind you to make sure you change your voter registration to a location that you can receive your ballot.

While you can update your voter registration information until 8 p.m. on Election Day and still cast a ballot at the county clerk’s office, you only have until October 13th to make changes to ensure it is mailed to your new location.

You can do this in person at the Josephine County Clerk’s office, online,  or by mail.
 
https://secure.sos.state.or.us/orestar/vr/showVoterSearch.do?lang=eng&source=SOS

Local Wildfire Relief Efforts

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 Here are three ways that you can help out:
Update 9/10 – Additional way…

As our Southern Oregon communities are rocked by several devastating fires, Rogue Credit Union has established a donation fund, through the Rogue Credit Union Foundation, to help the affected communities.

The community is invited to donate online, over the phone or at any Rogue Credit Union branch. Additionally, Rogue will be matching up to $50,000 in community donations. Donations raised will distributed locally, designated specifically for assisting impacted families and rebuilding our communities.

How to Donate:

Online

or In-Branch or Over the Phone

Josephine County Fairgrounds
541-476-3215
They are the hub for local relief and are accepting donations that will be distributed to shelters in need. They can use packaged food items that are easy to distribute and will not spoil, fruit and nuts, granola bars, etc. They also need water, diapers, wipes, formula, and baby food.
Parkway Christian Center
541-479-2639
229 NE Beacon Dr., Grants Pass
PCC is specifically asking for donations of folding chairs, cots, pillows and pillow cases. They can also use sleeping bags, blankets, and towels. These items can be new, or gently used and clean. Soap, shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste are also appreciated.
St. Ann’s Catholic Church
1131 NE 10th St., Grants Pass
They have specifically requested bottled water, prepackaged snacks, bananas, apples, oranges, cleaning wipes.
All donations can be delivered directly to the sites. 
 

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Biden Signs Available Soon

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Democrats, Progressives, and unhappy Republicans have been clamoring for ways to show their support for the Joe Biden – Kamala Harris ticket with yard signs, buttons and stickers. Frankly, we can’t keep them in the office before they are all out on the streets.

We have signs, stickers, and buttons coming in. They are going fast. You can reserve your sign by stopping by our office at 7th & C in Grants Pass (2nd floor) Monday through Saturday from Noon to 3:00PM. We will call you when in and ready for pickup.

 

Governor Kate Brown Issues Statement on Portland Protests, Condemning Gun Violence

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August 30, 2020

Governor Kate Brown Issues Statement on Portland Protests, Condemning Gun Violence

(Salem, OR) — Governor Kate Brown issued the following statement today:

“For the last several years, and escalating in recent months, President Trump has encouraged division and stoked violence. It happened in Charlottesville. It happened in Kenosha. And now, unfortunately, it is happening in Portland, Oregon.

“But despite the President’s jeers and tweets, this is a matter of life and death. Whether it’s his completely incompetent response to the pandemic, where nearly 200,000 have died, or his outright encouragement of violence in our streets: it should be clear to everyone by now that no one is truly safe with Donald Trump as President.

“Throughout this pandemic, whether it was demonstrations protesting my COVID-19 executive orders, or large crowds marching for the cause of Black Lives Matter to call for police reform, I have supported the rights of all Oregonians to peacefully protest.

“For months this summer, we have seen powerful images of Oregonians uniting for the cause of racial justice, calling for justice for Black men and women who have been killed by police violence. We remember them, we say their names. George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Ahmaud Arbery. Philando Castile. Alton Sterling. And far too many other Black lives taken by racist violence.

“For weeks, we have also seen small groups of demonstrators from all ends of the political spectrum who are intent on committing acts of vandalism and violence. Tragically, yesterday a life was lost in downtown Portland. We do not yet know the full circumstances of this person’s death. Regardless, a life has been lost, and our hearts go out to this person’s family. We will find those who were responsible, and they will be held accountable.”

Jerry Allen for Senate Volunteer Meeting

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Oregon has an opportunity to have a fantastic State Senator for District 2, Democratic Candidate, Jerry Allen. The Republican candidate running against him is Art Robinson who has extremist Alt-right beliefs and has worked with unregistered foreign agents to clean up his campaign after losing in every previous election he has ran in.

Although Robinson is a five time loser in the congressional elections when faced against Peter DeFazio, the Oregon State Senate District 2 has a MUCH different demographic. The congressional district he ran for against DeFazio had the liberal base of Eugene, Senate District 2, does not.

Art Robinson is known throughout the community for collecting urine from strangers, he thinks nuclear waste can be diluted and spread over the ocean, and thinks Social Security and public education should be abolished (just to name a few reasons).

How do all you parents currently forced to homeschool because of COVID, feel about this abolishing public schools?

There are so many other reasons Robinson would be dangerous as a government leader – so please join Jerry tonight at his Volunteer Strategic Planning Session and consider donating to his campaign to help give him a fighting chance. Not only do our senators represent us here in Josephine and Jackson Counties, but they have a large impact on what happens in the entire state. When they walk out of the job like current District 2 Senator, Herman Baertschiger Jr. has done numerous times, it halts ALL work in Salem. We need a representative who will stay in Salem and get the work done.

Participants need to pre-register for tonight’s event:
https://bit.ly/30fzoS1
Date: Monday August 3, 2020
Time: 6:00 pm

Another priority his campaign has, is the need to collect 200 valid signatures from registered voters in Oregon State Senate District 2. This will allow him to get his candidate statement into the Voter Information Pamphle without having to spend $750.

The signature petition and instructions can be downloaded from here. Even if you don’t make it to the Zoom meeting, if you live in Senate District 2, please help him by completing this form and returning it ASAP. Additional information and instructions are included in the document.

The petition can have one signature or up to 10 per sheet. We will have them available at our office, or you can drop off any that you have done on your own, Tuesday or Friday between 12-3. (Upstairs at the corner of 7th and C Street) We have until THIS Saturday to get the 200 signatures.

If you aren’t sure what district you live in, visit https://openstates.org/find_your_legislator/ and enter your address.

We hope you will join him on Zoom tonight.

If you have any specific questions or suggestions, you can send them in advance to communications@jerryallenforsenate.com

Black Lives Matter / Anti-Racism Resource List

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There are a lot of questions people may have relating to Black Lives Matter and how we can support the movement to become better allies and accomplices to our Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities.

According to the 2018 Census Reporter, Josephine County is 87% white. It is no wonder many of us may struggle with knowing how best to support minority Americans, as our own local population gives us few community members to engage with. Just because we don’t see the systemic racism on a regular basis, does not mean it doesn’t exist.

The best thing we can do to become better allies, is educate ourselves and learn more about what brought this movement forward, and how to become true anti-racist allies.

This list of resources may help us all to be better informed, to find ways to support positive change in bringing an end to race based violence and systemic racism.Timeline of Events that led to the 2020 “fed-Up” Rising (This timeline is not all inclusive and is missing many events, but a good place to start.)

Statistics – Chances of being killed by police / use of force in the United States:

Deaths caused by police use of force (median model-based prediction) as a percentage of all deaths by age, race, and sex.
SYSTEMIC RACISM
“What Is Systemic Racism?” is an 8-part video series that shows how racism shows up in our lives across institutions and society: Wealth Gap, Employment, Housing Discrimination, Government Surveillance, Incarceration, Drug Arrests, Immigration Arrests, Infant Mortality… yes, systemic racism is really a thing.Boston Globe – Housing Racism – Researcher expected ‘outrageously high’ discrimination against Black renters. What they found was worse than imagined.

Center for American Progress: How American’s housing system undermines wealth building in communities of color

Systemic Racism Explained

7 Ways You Know Systemic Racism is Real

From Slavery to Mass Incarceration

Wyden Joins Merkley to Block Trump from Deploying Unwanted Paramilitary Forces

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Video Available Here

Madam President, Donald Trump has deployed a paramilitary squad to my hometown of Portland. His secret police are terrorizing my friends and neighbors. And people across this country need to understand, yesterday Donald Trump announced to America that your friends and your neighbors are next.

Unmarked vans full of armed men in military gear are snatching people off the streets. They take people away, hold them and interrogate them without justification, and ultimately without charges.

Over the weekend a close personal friend, Sharon Meieran, an ER doc and a mom was out protesting peacefully and was tear-gassed without provocation.

Millions have seen the video of a local Navy veteran who was repeatedly beaten, pepper sprayed and left with broken bones. What was his offense? He was standing motionless, hands by his side, speaking up for the liberty he served to protect.

We’ve seen reports of agents ripping a mask off of a protester who was obeying commands with hands in the air, only to pepper spray the protester’s face.

The secret police even threw flash bangs and tear gas at a “wall of moms.”

You can see right here. Over the last couple of days, moms and dads with their kids are peacefully singing songs and protesting for justice. Portland is standing up for what’s right.

Only the cowards of the Trump administration would try to convince the country that these peaceful protesters, the “wall of moms,” represent some kind of anarchist threat. It’s nonsense.

Folks, I condemn violence by anybody. And I spent much of the last week in Portland working to reduce tensions. The fact is, protests in Portland have been overwhelmingly peaceful. Crime in Portland and across Oregon was down before Trump sent in the secret police.

Donald Trump did not send in this paramilitary force to keep people safe. Trump is doing this to create images of chaos, to air them on far-right television and in campaign ads, and scare the country into reelecting him.

But these are the people Donald Trump’s paramilitary forces are attacking and terrorizing. He says it is a great success, and he plans on doing it in other cities, specifically targeting those with Democratic leadership and voters.

This kind of abusive exercise of power by a rogue president would have horrified our founders.

They wrote our Constitution to prevent exactly this behavior, because democracy cannot survive in a country that tolerates it. These tactics were used throughout the world a century ago to turn elected politicians into tyrants.

Colleagues, the president’s first and most important job is to keep Americans safe.

Residents of Portland are less safe and less secure since Donald Trump deployed the secret police on our streets. The same thing will happen anywhere else that Trump chooses to send his paramilitary forces.

Frankly, I wish Donald Trump would attack the coronavirus with the same zeal he’s attacking peaceful protesters.

While Donald Trump’s secret police are out there terrorizing Portland’s moms and doctors and other peaceful protesters, the country is facing a raging pandemic and record high unemployment. Donald Trump isn’t keeping Americans safe from those crises – he’s making both of them worse, too.

He’s attempting to cut resources for COVID testing and treatment. His administration is covering up data that public health professionals rely on to do their jobs. He wants to cut the lifelines of 30 million jobless Americans, sending them tumbling over an economic cliff right in the middle of the worst unemployment crisis since the Great Depression.

Donald Trump is not doing his job. He’s ignoring his responsibilities. Instead of keeping Americans safe, he’s putting them in danger. 

As I said, and as I will repeat as many times as necessary: He ought to attack the pandemic, not the people of Portland.

For now, Senator Merkley and I are offering an amendment that would block Trump from using these paramilitary forces in Portland or other cities where they are unwanted.

What we’re seeing in my hometown are authoritarian brutality unleashed against peaceful protesters – moms and veterans and doctors and activists who are standing up for liberty and justice.

What Donald Trump is doing is incompatible with the fundamental principles of democracy laid out by our founders and expanded through the generations. What Donald Trump is doing is totally out of control. The Senate cannot allow it to happen.

That’s why Senator Merkley and I are calling for the Senate to act. And we’re going to keep pushing and fighting until this changes. I yield the floor.

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