19 Oct Secretary of State Bev Clarno, Please Ensure That Our Votes Are Counted This Year!

Dear Secretary of State Bev Clarno,

PCUN has a history of working to educate and motivate citizens who often miss out on voting. For farmworkers and the immigrant community members that we represent, voting is the fundamental cornerstone of a free and democratic society.  As the Secretary of State, you have a unique duty of care towards the integrity of our democracy, and we write to you as the official who is responsible for counting the votes in our state.  

One of the largest obstacles in increasing voting participation has been a growing fear that our people’s votes will not count, or that the process of voting will face interference or intimidation from third party actors. We are deeply committed to an electoral process in which every single voter is confident that they will be able to participate and that their vote will be counted. Given the political and social environment that we are experiencing and the pandemic that our state is navigating, we want to ask important things of you to make sure we provide voters with the best information possible:

1. How can voters track the status of their ballots (including absentee ballots)?
   
2. When will votes be tallied?
   
3. If intimidation or obstruction of voters occurs at ballot drop-off locations, how will your office notify the press, voters, and law enforcement to protect voters?
   
4. If there are widespread problems with USPS delivering ballots, will you expand the time that ballots can be received in order to not disenfranchise voters?

We appreciate the importance of your job and the historical weight on your shoulders this year.  We look forward to working with you in securing voters’ trust that their ballots will count this election year! 

Best Regards,

Reyna Lopez, Executive Director

PCUN Farmworkers & Latinx Working Families United