Whitesboro Peanut Festival
Saturday Oct 19, 8:00a-4:00p
Beautiful Downtown Whitesboro

To volunteer at the GCDP booth, email Ron and Jeanne Briggs

Monthly Meeting, Oct 24, 2019

Grayson County Democratic Party monthly meeting
Thurs, Oct 24, 2019, 5:30 meet and greet, 6:00 meeting
Fourth Thursdays at Grandy’s  MAP
New friends always welcome!  Wheelchair accessible
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Potluck Social at 903 Brewers

Saturday Oct 26, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Drink your favorite brew!
Meet candidates!
Win fabulous door prizes!
Raffle tickets sold at the door –  the more you buy the cheaper they get!
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VOTE November 5, 2019

You may request a postage-paid application by filling out this form and a voter registration application will be mailed to you. Last day to register to vote in 2019 was Oct 8, but now you can register to vote for next year.

Check your voter registration status here.

State Constitutional Amendments, City of Sherman, Denison ISD, City of Gunter, Woodbine Water Supply Corporation and Van Alstyne MUD #1
Details here. How the amendments will appear on the ballot.

A balanced explanation of the amendments, prepared by the Texas House Research Organization. Texas Democratic Party has not taken a position on them. However all of them except Prop 4 (Income Tax prohibition) passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.

Progress Texas voter guide about the amendments

Early voting dates, times, locations.
2020 voting dates, times, locations

Last day to register to vote in 2019: Tuesday, October 8, 2019
Early Voting period: Monday, October 21 – Friday, November 1, 2019
Election Day: Tuesday, Nov 5, 2019
Last day to apply for ballot-by-mail*: Friday, October 25, 2019.
*Application must be received by this date, NOT postmarked

NOTE:
We invite all who are interested in running for Grayson Democratic Party Precinct Chair or County Chair to submit a notarized application to Glenn Melancon before 6:00 pm, Dec 9, 2019. Applications can be found here.
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Kaffee Klatsch, Nov 9, 2019

Second Saturdays at Panera Bread from 8:30-10:30am. The “Kaffee Klatsch” is a meet and greet sponsored by Democratic Women of Grayson County. With a come and go format, you may purchase your favorite brew then join us for an informal conversation and connect with others in our community.

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2020 Democratic Candidates for President

Democratic Candidates for U.S. Senate against Cornyn

Texas Democrats’ Path to Victory
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Become a poll worker!
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Blast from the Past

Denison Main St Festival, Saturday Oct 5, 2019
Jeanne and Ron Briggs, GCDP Presentation Organizers

People Have the Power

View the photo album for the LBJ birthday party at 903 Brewers.

Aug 31, we celebrated LBJ’s birthday and everything about the Great Society – Medicare, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 1965 Voting Rights Act; as well as his War on Poverty which included many social welfare programs to aid the poor. LBJ was successful in reducing unemployment and poverty; and bringing about economic growth. He is also hailed as a civil rights hero and for doing more for education than any other president.*

View fabulous 2019 Juneteenth photos on our FB page
and Like us while you’re there!

We had the pleasure of meeting Mississippi Freedom Rider, Barbara Bowie, who stopped by our booth. Listen to her podcast here:
The Freedom Riders and Me.

View Fabulous Grayson Pride Day Photos
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TDP Distributed Canvass Instructions for Officers, Pct Chairs and volunteers
Walk targets without cutting a VAN list

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Contribute now! If you’ve saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:

Contact your representatives
US Senator John Cornyn (202) 224-2934
US Senator Ted Cruz (202) 224-5922
US Representative JohN RAtcliffe: (202) 225-6673
Texas State Senator Pat Fallon: (512) 463-0694
Texas State Representative Reggie Smith: (512) 463-029

GCDP is Recruiting Candidates in the following races

If interested in running for any of these offices, or if you know someone you would like to recommend, please email GCDP. Filing deadline is first week in December 2019.

County Commissioner Precinct 1, Jeff Whitmire
County Commissioner Precinct 3, Phyllis James
15th Judicial District Judge James (Jim) P. Fallon, Term Ends: 12-31-2020
59th Judicial District Judge Larry Phillips
Sheriff Tom Watt
Tax Assessor-Collector Bruce Stidham
Justice of the Peace Precinct 1, Larry Atherton, Office moves to GC courthouse
Constables for Precincts 1, 2, 3, and 4:
     Tommy Carter, Michael Putman, Todd Booher, Bob Douglas

Texas House of Representative, District 62, against Rep. Reggie Smith
Democrat Gary Thomas from Denison has filed to run in this race!

U.S. House of Representatives, District 4, Rep. John Ratcliffe

State Board of Education, District 9
Democrat Brenda Davis of Bonham has announced her candidacy for State Board of Education in 2020.

Keven Ellis, a Republican from Lufkin, serves as the District 9 representative on the SBOE. He was elected to a four-year term on Nov. 8, 2016 and represents 31 Northeast Texas counties. Ellis is a member of the board’s Committee on School Initiatives, which oversees agenda items on topics such as charter schools, State Board for Educator Certification rules and school board member training.

SBOE District 9 includes 31 Northeast Texas counties:
Anderson, Angelina, Bowie, Camp, Cass, Cherokee, Delta, Fannin, Franklin, Grayson, Gregg, Harrison, Henderson, Hopkins, Hunt, Kaufman, Lamar, Marion, Morris, Nacogdoches, Panola, Rains, Red River, Rockwall, Rusk, Shelby, Smith, Titus, Upshur, Van Zandt, and Wood.

https://tea.texas.gov/About_TEA/Leadership/State_Board_of_Education/Board_Members/SBOE_Member_District__9/

https://tlc.texas.gov/redist/pdf/sboe/map.pdf

If interested in running for any of these offices, or if you know someone you would like to recommend, please email GCDP. Filing deadline is first week in December 2019.
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Call Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz: 202-224-3121
Call Rep John Ratcliffe: 202-225-6673

They’ll be used the first time in Nov 2019. We must insist on manual vote counts for verification of these new machines. Especially in Nov. 2020.

Grayson County citizens attended an ES&S demo of their new Express Vote election machine in January, 2019. You mark your choices on a screen similar to what we’ve been using, and then a paper ballot is printed with your choices. You verify your choices and insert the ballot into a scanner for tabulation. Paper ballots will be available for audits and re-counts for 24 months. Watch this demo so you’ll know how it works.

Here’s why Grayson County is getting a new paper ballot system. We need to require frequent audits of manually counted paper ballots. Watch this 22 minute report.

Example of optical scan ballots with ovals to fill in (for example, mail-in ballots):

Additional reading: article from Verified Voting

‘‘The incorrect assertion that voting machines or voting systems can’t be hacked by remote attackers because they are ‘not connected to the internet’ is not just wrong, it’s damaging,’’ says Susan Greenhalgh, a spokeswoman for the National Election Defense Coalition, an elections integrity group. ‘‘This oft-repeated myth instills a false sense of security that is inhibiting officials and lawmakers from urgently requiring that all voting systems use paper ballots and that all elections be robustly audited.’’

“In the 15 years since electronic voting machines were first adopted by many states, numerous reports by computer scientists have shown nearly every make and model to be vulnerable to hacking.”  Voters should demand paper ballots that can be manually counted, and voters should demand that random precincts be audited, ie paper ballots manually counted, after every election. More: The Myth of the Hacker-Proof Voting Machine – The New York Times