Press release from Indivisible Asheville:
Indivisible Asheville/WNC (“Indivisible AVL”), a nonprofit grassroots group focused on defending democracy with informed community action, is partnering with the Sweet Ride Asheville ice cream truck to share information to get neighbors ready to vote. The first “Ice Cream & Voting” event will be this Sunday, July 26th from 1pm to 4:30pm in several Asheville neighborhoods.
Indivisible AVL and Sweet Ride will make five stops in Montford, Kenilworth and West Asheville, where they will provide free ice cream to kids and voting information to adults. Indivisible AVL will have voter registration forms, absentee ballot applications, voting schedules and other voting information. Indivisible will also be recruiting volunteers to get involved with its nonpartisan “Let’s All Vote 2020” campaign. The event route with specific times and locations can be found at: indivisibleavl.org/ice-cream-for-democracy-event/ or bit.ly/IceCreamVoting.
Indivisible AVL launched the “Let’s All Vote” campaign in November 2019, in an effort to increase voter turnout among progressive voters in Buncombe County. The campaign kicked off with several canvassing events and other in-person voter engagement trainings. These efforts came to a halt when the pandemic hit and Indivisible’s leaders have experimented with other ways to engage volunteers and voters in the new environment of social distancing and meeting remotely. Indivisible hosts one or two “virtual canvassing” events per month, and also employs friend-to-friend voter engagement strategies. Information about volunteer opportunities can be found here: bit.ly/IndivisibleVol.
Indivisible AVL Board Member Katie Russell, “We’ve had to get creative to reach voters and we are so excited to get out into local communities to be sure our neighbors are ready to vote during these uncertain times. We want to help people double check that they have up-to-date voter registration, and give them information about requesting a mail-in ballot in case they need it. Many people don’t realize that if you request an absentee ballot, you don’t have to use it; you can still decide to vote in person but you have the mail-in option if you need it.”
She continues, “The pandemic has placed even sharper focus on the things that need to change in our country — access to health care, making racial equity a reality, living wages, adequate funding for public education and more. Even at a social distance, we are working to bring our neighbors together to create big change for our community, our state and our country this fall. We know many people are frustrated with the direction things are going and we invite folks to come out and learn more about how we can have our voices heard.”
Indivisible AVL is led by an all-volunteer steering committee and operates as a 501(c)(4).
Sweet Ride is a new ice cream truck business managed by local high school students (sweetrideasheville.com).
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