KATALINA VILLARREAL: I have Debbie Bruell with me.
DEBBIE BRUELL: My name is Debbie. I work with Mountain Action Indivisible.
VILLARREAL: And then George Wear is with me.
GEORGE WEAR: And my name is George, and I work with Mountain Action Indivisible.
VILLARREAL: I have you guys in to talk about the No Kings rally that's happening this coming Saturday, October 17th. I'd love to hear what you guys are most excited about and want people to know.
WEAR: Well, it's all about voting in the elections. So, what we're most excited about is getting the message out there for folks to vote early, number one. And then, for us, number two is to sign everybody up to help out where they can with the upcoming elections and reminding their friends to get out and vote and to help with the elections.
BRUELL: Our event is completely nonpartisan, and we will have lots of information about voting, about how to vote, how to get your ballot if you don't have a ballot, what's on your ballot, lots of information tables to give people information about voting. Oh, and a big focus is voting early because we know that there's likely going to be attempts to sabotage our elections, and the more people get their ballot in early, the harder it will be for bad actors to manipulate or deny election results.
VILLARREAL: In what ways are they gonna be offered to sign up and help out? What are they able to volunteer for?
BRUELL: There's actually tons of stuff people can do now. So we're signing people up to do things from now through election day and after election day. We have "Register to Vote" signs that we're hoping businesses will put in their windows, and anyone can grab some of those signs. We have voter registration cards that people can grab and just distribute wherever they go throughout their day. We're also signing people up for poll monitoring. We're working with Common Cause Colorado, and they are signing people up and training people to be nonpartisan poll monitors to make sure that there's no voter intimidation going on, to make sure everybody has access so that they can vote. There's also going to be work to be done, very likely, after the election. So we are getting prepared to get as many people's phone numbers as we can because if there is any shenanigans with the election sabotage, we want to be able to alert people right away.
VILLARREAL: Can either of you tell me about the importance of voting locally?
WEAR: Well, local issues are really important too, of course, and there are local ballot measures that everyone should be aware of, whether you live in Garfield County or Pitkin County or what community you live in. There are school issues on there. There are library issues on there. All, all pretty important. We'll be sharing some nonpartisan information about those ballot measures as well, and there are local elections as well for county commissioner, for example. You know, local politics is really important. It affects our day-to-day lives and the way things are governed within our counties.
BRUELL: It impacts whether our schools have funding to be effective schools. It impacts whether our libraries have funding. How we're able to respond to wildfires. Lots of very close-to-home impacts on our lives.
VILLARREAL: Are there any other things you wanted to mention on your notes?
BRUELL: A big focus of the event is gonna be celebrating the power of our vote and making sure people understand the power of our vote, so it's really gonna be a celebration. We're gonna have music and dancing, free T-shirts, and we're gonna have prizes, and anyone who believes in democracy is welcome to join us.
WEAR: So there'll be a little bit of schwag there, and I just wanna emphasize, too, it's gonna be a fun event. I'm looking forward to it.
Join the non-partisan No Kings event in Glenwood Springs to learn about issues being voted on in this midterm election, to meet people who believe in the power of democracy, and to have a grooving time. The No Kings event will be held this Saturday, October 17, at Sayre Park from 4 to 5:30 p.m.
