GENERAL
MEETING
MARCH
1, 2018
Minutes
Deb Willis read
the Two Indivisible Principles and described the mission and goals of
Indivisible St Johns. She welcomed new faces, explained our ongoing need for
donations as we are supporting the March for Our Future students on March 24
and working on postcards for voters for our amazing postcard group. We now have
a DONATE button on our Facebook page
if people want to set up recurring donations or just give one time. Every
dollar counts.
Deb also gave
a call out for volunteers to help us with media/PR and fundraising. Anyone
interested can email indivisible.st.johns@gmail.com
Vicky Oakes, SJC Supervisor of Elections,
walked us through the ballot trail in our county. She noted that nationwide,
there are 109,000 polling places with 700,000 pollworkers. Statewide there are
5900 polling places with 6500 pollworkers and in our county, we have 46
precincts with 38 polling places and 350 pollworkers. She emphasized the
convenience and security of our mail in ballots which is popular in our county.
Security wise,
Vicky noted our system is not connected to the internet; the tabulation
(counting) system is considered a “closed” system. Elections supervisors in FL
are taking the threat of hacking very seriously. In 2016 firewalls and update
for the defense of our networks were completed. She stated we are now on
offense.
She explained
what happens on election night: pollworkers close the polls and print 3 results
tapes, one of which is hung on the door of the polling place so the public can
check. The tabulator results are also backed up on flash drives and the paper
ballots are counted to make sure the total voter count matches. The poll worker
modems the results to our communications server over a private network. Results
are uploaded to the website after tabulation.
The statewide
voter registration system servers are monitored 24/7/365. New security updates
will be done here approximately May 1 for the 2018 election. All state election
supervisors are on board with all the upgrades and are currently planning for
any contingency. Equipment is tested, open to the public, prior to the
election. In 2016, 28,000 voters voted by mail. The office is open to the
public on election night as well as during any ballot recounts. We now have
standards to determine “voter intent” and paper ballots are kept for 22 months
after an election has been certified.
She also noted
Gov Scott has requested $3 million for cybersecurity which will go to the
updates mentioned above. On a question about hacking the network, Vicky stated
they’ve hired an excellent IT security person and we have access to federal
assistance as well. In response to a question about the voter registration
database, she said the state is going to have them monitored and moved off the
internet. She mentioned that when online voter registration came online in
October 2017, $2 million was spent to secure that system. In response to a
question about an article stating FL was one of 7 states affected in 2016,
Vicky hadn’t investigated that yet but planned to. She also noted that voter
rolls are public records (excluding certain fields: drivers license, last 4 SSN
and signature) while drivers licenses are not and that Election Supervisors are
against this but Tallahassee is not. She said Representative Stevenson has been
working on this but it doesn’t look good.
Stephanie Scarborough, Immigration Attorney
representing the SJC family facing deportation, spoke next. With the
family’s permission, she gave a few details: they came here in 2008 with 2
children from Bosnia on visas seeking political asylum. Under Obama, criminal
deportations took precedence over others and gave families time to “normalize”
their status before their visas expired. This family reported in to ICE and got
discretionary treatment until Trump stopped Enhanced DACA with his executive
orders. This family has no recourse now as they cannot get green cards without
a legal status, they lost their court case in 2013 because Bosnia was
considered secure and there’s simply no pathway now for them to stay. Their daughter
will graduate with honors in May this year and it’s expected they will be
deported soon after. There are no immediate relatives here to sponsor them and
they missed DACA eligibility by 8 months.
She gave ICE
stats from February 2018:
Removal/detentions are up 42%
Only 12% of these are criminals
(and that’s a loosely defined term)
She also noted
the recent Supreme Court ruling that allows for indefinite detention with no
periodic hearings and no status checks. Under the 287G program, allowing local
law enforcement to cooperate with ICE, about 187 sheriffs in Florida have
signed on.
What we can do:
Contact our MoCs and insist on a
clean DREAM Act
Start helping people without
status (papers) normalize such
Read the talking points and
background sheet soon to be posted to the blog
Deb Willis
then went over the Indivisible St Johns
survey that was sent out which got a good response but we need more. It
will be posted again with the next calendar at the top. This helps us plan
actions our members support. We need that input
.
Dennis Gorlick
noted the St Augustine City
Commissioners will take up local gun control options including regulation
of guns, background checks. This will be on March 12, 2018 at 5 PM in the
Alcazar Room at city hall and public comments are welcome.
Warren Clark
spoke of the tremendous effectiveness of the postcard group. Each week they have 3-4 topics with background and
talking points. He mentioned gun control as an upcoming topic. Each card to
legislators combines points and ends with an “ask”, a vote or a position
statement. He wants to have more of these around the county and if anyone is
interested, please contact him. If his email is needed, please email indivisible.st.johns@gmail.com
and we will pass it on.
Deb Willis
noted our monthly social March 9 at 7-9
PM at the Growers Alliance on Anastasia Blvd. They are great people and are
staying open late for us. Please try to come and unwind with like minded
people.
Deb also
reminded everyone we are having general
meetings the first Thursday of every month, currently at the UU on A1A from
7-9 PM. Everyone is encouraged to bring their ideas and to bring a friend.
Mary noted the
large number of well written letters to the editors and OpEds that have been
published. She encouraged members, if appropriate to the piece, to try to put
Indivisible St Johns in the body so it will appear. Associations after
signatures do not seem to make it into the paper.
Joan McGinnis
announced a new Indivisible06
dedicated to turning our southern district blue and encouraged everyone to go
to their Facebook.
Meeting
adjourned 9PM
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