Reminders from the NDP During this Public Health Crisis

March 16, 2020

Hello everyone. I want to reiterate some key points from the Nebraska Democratic Party so everyone can stay safe and healthy. We all must do our part to “flatten the curve.”

1. We’ve sent a few emails about us encouraging NO IN PERSON voter contact, meetings and events. We stand by this advice.

Following that advice, all NDP meetings and trainings have been cancelled or moved online.

The SCC Meeting on March 21 and County Convention Training will happen all online and via phone. We’ve sent instructions on those calls with the agenda (which is also on the NDP website) and will send it out again early in the week.

2. Our Block Captain program is moving to phones and emails encouraging their 50 voters assigned to them to fill out and return a Vote-by-Mail Application. This is a major shift from the door knocking program we had in place — it will ensure we still contact voters but NOT in person.

3. We created a new online Vote-By-Mail Application request form to make it easier for people to get one sent to them so they can fill it out and get it back to us. We in turn scan them and send to county election offices. In the first 24 hours, 507 people filled out the form. We also have a large mailing going to voters in addition to those contacting us. Candidates will be trained on March 24 how to then contact voters who are going to Vote-By-Mail.

See the VBM Application request form here.

4. We are hosting a conference call on March 24 at 6:30 p.m. to make sure candidates know how to use texting, virtual phone banks and other tools to stay in contact with voters other than in-person contact (again, no door-to-door or lit drops is our advice).

5. NDP staff and officers are in contact with the DNC and the ASDC on the next steps for everything from getting more resources to help with aggressive Vote-By-Mail outreach and guidance on next steps for county, state and national conventions. We will present more information at the SCC meeting on March 21 (which again will be via phone and online only).

6. Our staff is working from home and the NDP offices. We are asking people not to come to the office unless you are picking up more Vote-By- Mail applications or other critical materials. You can email and call staff. If you need anyone’s contact information, just respond to Executive Director Jim Rogers (jim@nebraskademocrats.org) and he will connect you with the right staff member.

7. Please read reliable sources of information and share that information on social media. UNMC in our state is a national expert. I’ve found their blogs and tweets to be very helpful as we make decisions for our organization. Our state senators are receiving briefings, so following them on social media and retweeting them is also important.

A section from one of the UMNC articles is below to how critical this public health crisis is:

Here is important math:

One infected person infects about 2.5 others; they in turn infect 2.5 each. So very quickly, that one person results in 10 cases in the community – and that continues. The current estimates suggest that if 100 people become infected, five will need to be hospitalized. That seems like a small number, but in the state of Nebraska, over an 8-week period that is between 30,000 and 90,000 additional hospitalized people and 12,000 to 20,000 of those might need an intensive care bed. Key point: There are not that many hospital beds in Nebraska. We will be unable to provide lifesaving care for people with this infection. Do not forget, in addition to the patients with this new infection your hospital still must take care of those with heart attacks, cancer, strokes and many other conditions. Most of the hospitals in our community are “full” as I type this.

Lastly, please know our team is working together to help everyone in our party and the community. If you have questions, concerns or ideas, please reach out to me or Jim Rogers or any of our leadership team. We are all in this together.

–Jane Kleeb, NDP Chair

Reminders from the NDP During this Public Health Crisis

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