#VA4Bernie's September Race to 400

Hi everyone!

There is now a competition going on to see which Virginia district can reach 400 valid petition signatures first, also known as #VA4Bernie’s September Race to 400!

The goal of this competition is to get all of us around Virginia to keep track of and report our exact numbers of VALID petition signatures.  That way we know where any weak districts may be and we can focus our efforts in those locations to ensure we reach the proper minimums to get Bernie on the ballot.

Each District Petition Leader will be in charge of not only counting petition signatures but also determining how many are actually valid.  As we all should know by now, there are many reasons why a signature could get tossed -- unclear handwriting, the person forgot to sign or print their name, the address block was left blank, etc.  The first district to reach 400 actual, valid signatures wins!

For this group’s purposes, we will be focusing on DISTRICT 4, 3 and  2 since those are the most common in our region.  Mary Lou Burke will collect  petitions for District 4. Stephen Summers will be in charge of collecting and vetting District 2 petition signatures. Alex Katz will collect District 3. All forms MUST BE NOTARIZED before they are turned in. Other forms should be sent to the appropriate person as listed on this Google Doc. It also lists contact information for Mary Lou, Alex, and others.

But please note that this doesn’t mean the responsibility is all on our local district organizers.  It will take our entire team to ensure we win!  If you have been collecting petition signatures already, please be sure to get them notarized as soon as possible after the event is completed.  The goal should be to have everything notarized and turned in to the respective district leaders ONE WEEK after the event is over -- again, Mary Lou for District 4, Alex K. for District 3, and Stephen S. for District 2.

You also do not have to fill out an entire sheet with signatures before you get it notarized so feel free to turn in less than full pages.  We have plenty of petition forms to go around so you can always start a new one!  And if you need extra forms, the PDF file is located under the Files tab in our FB group page or print them from here. If printing is a problem just ask Mary Lou, myself, or South Hampton Roads for Bernie on Facebook.  We’ll get them to you!  After your petitions are notarized, make sure they get to the appropriate district leader ASAP to begin the counting process.  The sooner the better so please stay on top of your petitions.  If you need help turning them in, ask the group!  We’ll find a way to make it happen.

And if you haven’t started collecting petition signatures yet, feel free to go ahead and get started!  If you were at our meeting yesterday (8/24/15) in Chesapeake, you should have been taught how to collect them.  If you were unable to attend, then this handy dandy PowerPoint presentation should be able to help you understand exactly what you need to do. Our ask for help and we'll train you.

If you have any questions about the race, collection petition signatures, or anything, let us know.  Let's be sure to win this competition!!  :)

-Erica