SLOCDP supports vote-by-mail

A RESOLUTION OF THE SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTYDate: June 8, 2020The San Luis Obispo County Democratic Party's Central Committee hereby adopts the following resolution, titled:The San Luis Obispo County Democratic Party calls for a detailed plan, budget and timeline for the full implementation of the Vote-By-Mail program in the COVID-19 era, and denounces GOP’s voter-suppression effortsWHEREAS generations of Americans fought and died to preserve our rights as citizens to vote; andWHEREAS the ability of American citizens to vote should not be dictated by how or for whom they intend to vote; andWHEREAS for the past decade, vote-by-mail has been an option favored by increasing numbers of Californians, and that vote-by-mail in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic will help protect the public's health and increase the likelihood of voting; andWHEREAS Governor Newsom's wise executive order to send every registered Californian voter a vote-by-mail ballot for the November presidential election will enhance the election’s legitimacy and strengthen Democracy; andWHEREAS there is no evidence that vote-by-mail leads to voter fraud, as claimed by President Trump and the Republican National Committee (RNC); andWHEREAS extensive peer-reviewed research shows that there is no evidence that vote-by-mail favors Democrats over Republicans or vice versa; andWHEREAS the California Republican Party (CRP) and the Republican National Committee (RNC) -- in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic -- are trying to block Californians from exercising their voting franchise by filing a lawsuit designed to prevent the option to vote-by-mail this year, and is a brazen attack on Democracy itself:NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the San Luis Obispo County Democratic Party forcefully denounces the efforts of the CRP, RNC and President Trump to suppress voting by attempting to block vote-by-mail in California -- and elsewhere in the United States of America -- as an explicit and aggressive assault on voting rights, especially those of voters unlikely to vote for President Trump and like-minded candidates; andBE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the San Luis Obispo County Democratic Party calls upon the SLO County Republican Party to support vote-by-mail, defend our neighbors' suffrage, and protect public health by joining us in denouncing the blatant voter-suppression efforts by its state and national umbrella organizations, and to drop their support for their disgraceful lawsuit; andBE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the San Luis Obispo County Democratic Party respectfully demands the San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder put forth as soon as possible a formal plan for early public review of a vote-by-mail program for the election of November 3, 2020, and that it include a proposed budget, timeline and in-person voting option, all of which honor SLO County’s long standing tradition of high voter turnout, independent of party affiliation; andBE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the San Luis Obispo County Democratic Party respectfully demands the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors adopt any reasonable vote-by-mail program and budget proposed by the County Clerk-Recorder in a timely fashion so as to inform the voting public of the program's contents and guidelines well in advance of the early October release of vote-by-mail ballots for the November electionBE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the San Luis Obispo County Democratic Party respectfully demands the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors recognize the critical importance of vote-by-mail to American Democracy and that it prioritize the budgeting of same over and above all other high-priority budget items in spite of budget shortfalls created by local impacts of the COVID-19 crisis.