Absentee ballots. If you have requested an absentee ballot, those begin to get mailed on September 4. Absentee ballots are NOT AUTOMATICALLY sent to North Carolina voters. You may request an absentee ballot at https://www.chathamnc.org/home/showdocument?id=50995 or at https://www.ncsbe.gov. If you don’t receive a ballot about a week after requesting one, contact the board of elections at (919) 545-8500.

You can return your ballot by mail, or in person at the Board of Elections office (984 Thompson St, Pittsboro NC 27312), or in person at an early voting site. There are no ballot drop boxes. An individual may only return their own ballot, or that of a near relative (spouse, sibling, parent, grandparent, child, grandchild, mother- father- daughter- or son-in-law, stepparent, stepchild, or legal guardian). NO ONE ELSE can legally return your ballot. If someone other than one of those tries to return your ballot, please contact the Chatham Republican Party at [email protected].

To check and see if your completed, returned ballot has been received, visit the North Carolina board of elections website at https://vt.ncsbe.gov/RegLkup/.

If you ask for an absentee ballot and then later decide to vote in person - great! All you have to do is destroy your unsubmitted absentee ballot. Once you submit your absentee ballot, however, you are done. You cannot later vote in person or change your ballot.

Sample ballots. We will be sending Republican sample ballots in the next couple of weeks. Look for yours in the mail with our recommended candidates. Remember this year we have a multi-page ballot. You will need to vote all pages, all the way to the end of the ballot.

Precinct Chairs! Interested in going all-in to support conservative principles and candidates? Then consider becoming a Precinct Chair. We have openings in several precincts for this important organizing role. If you might be interested, send an email to [email protected] for more information.

Reagan Day meet-the-candidates. Due to the Governor’s restrictions on meetings during covid, we regret our 2020 Reagan Day Dinner must go ‘virtual’ this year. We have a full lineup of conservative candidates who will speak. Please plan on attending from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm on September 19, 2020 via Zoom. I will send out the login information a few days before the event.

Volunteering. We hope to have volunteers at each of the early voting and election day sites, and as inside voting observers at each voting site. Both these roles are vitally important this year. We will need almost 6,000 volunteer hours to make that goal. We live in a free America now because our forefathers volunteered their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor over 200 years ago. It is our duty to honor their sacrifices. Please volunteer just a few (or more!) hours this election season to maintain the United States as the greatest country on earth. Go to https://www.chathamncgop.com/volunteer_2020 and let us know we can count on you between now and November.

Local Profiles in Courage. A special thanks this week to our two Chatham County Board of Elections members, Charles Ramos and Frank Dunphy. They stood up for conservative principles in the face of Democrat board member verbal attacks at the most recent board of elections meeting. Good job! Now, it is up to all of us to show courage for our principles in Chatham County.

Old Fashioned Farmers Day. Looking for something to do on Labor Day weekend? The 45th Old Fashioned Farmers Days at Silk Hope is happening on Saturday and Sunday. Many of our local Republican candidates will be around the broadcasters booth at 11:00 am on Saturday. Be sure to wear your MAGA hats. (Wait - you don't have a MAGA hat? Get one at the Chatham GOP headquarters in Pittsboro.)

Looking for something else to do? Our Orange County neighbors are having a 'BBQ, Bluegrass & The Bill of Rights' barbecue on October 3 in Hillsborough, to support the Judicial Candidates. More information is here: https://orange.nc.gop/bbq_and_bluegrass.

Finally this week, some historic words:

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
― Benjamin Franklin

Thanks for reading.

Terry Schmidt
Chair, Chatham County Republican Party
Exhaurire palude

70 days until election. Have you thought about how you are going to cast your ballot this year?

In North Carolina, you have several methods to cast your vote.
On election day, November 3, you must vote in your precinct. MOST ELECTION-DAY VOTING LOCATIONS HAVE CHANGED THIS YEAR due to Covid precautions. Do not plan on going to the voting location you used in the past, as most likely it will be not be there. More on that in a later email.
For two weeks before election day, you can vote in-person at one of the early voting locations. I’ll put out more information about that in a couple weeks.
You can request an absentee ballot now. If for some reason you might not get to the polls in person, any registered voter can vote with an absentee ballot. That is a great primary or backup plan in case something happens and you can’t get to the polls. If you are not registered to vote, stop everything, right now, and do so. Go here and register. If you have not yet requested an absentee ballot, stop everything, right now, and do so. Go here now. If you later decide to vote in person, you do not have to send in your absentee vote, but now you have a backup plan. Ballots will start to be mailed on September 4. If you vote absentee you cannot later vote in person.
The North Carolina absentee ballot procedure seems to be secure. Each ballot will have a barcode that the voter can use to check the progress of the ballot from mailing to deliver to voting at the board of elections.
You can check your voters registration by going to this website: https://vt.ncsbe.gov/RegLkup/

Early Voting. The days for early voting in each North Carolina county are determined by a unanimous vote of the Board of Elections members. This year the three Democrat members have pushed to expand early voting on Sunday. The three Republican members have voted against Sunday voting. Since they could not agree, the decision now goes to the State Board of Elections meeting on August 31. You can express your opinion at https://bit.ly/3ipadmf no later than noon on August 27. Please do so.

Reagan Day Dinner. Because we cannot plan on what edict will come next from Governor Cooper regarding coronavirus, we cannot hold this year’s Reagan Day dinner in person. Please plan on attending our virtual Reagan Day meet-the-candidate event on September 19. A future newsletter will have login information for the event.

Volunteer. We would like to have volunteers all day at every one of the polling places this year to hand out sample ballots and answer voter’s questions about candidates. Please consider spending some time with your fellow patriots this year, and volunteer for this important work. Simply go here and let us know if you can help.

From one of our nation’s Founding Fathers:
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must … undergo the fatigue of supporting it.
― Tom Paine

Terry Schmidt
Chair, Chatham County Republican Party

Here is another piece by guest author 'RM' on China trade and Trump's success stories dealing with Communist China.  

Below is a thought-provoking article from a guest author ('RM') about the upcoming elections. Please read it and think about the consequences of this election season.

2020-A Crisis Election or Not?

• If you believe not being offended is more important than Freedom of Speech, then don’t vote.
• If you don’t like guns and therefore believe no one else should have them, then don’t vote.
• If you want your taxes to go up, then don’t vote.
• If you want more activist judges who ignore the Constitution, then don’t vote.
• If you want to see China gain increased power in the world, then don’t vote.
• If you want to defund the police and see more violence in our cities, then don’t vote.
• If you believe ‘fairness’ is more important than freedom, then don’t vote.
• If you believe ‘equal outcome’ is more important than ‘equal opportunity’, then don’t vote.
• If you want your children and grandchildren to grow up in a socialist nation, then don’t vote.

If you want to save our country - then VOTE. If you are not registered to vote, stop everything, right now, and do so. Go here and register. If you have not yet requested an absentee ballot, stop everything, right now, and do so. Go here and request an absentee ballot. If you later decide to vote in person, you do not have to vote absentee, but now you have a backup plan. Ballots will start to be mailed on September 4.

In just 100 days we will elect a President, Congress, Governor, Council of State, Supreme Court justices, legislators, county commissioners, and school board members.

If you are not registered to vote, stop everything, right now, and do so. Go here and register.

If you have not yet requested an absentee ballot, stop everything, right now, and do so. Go here now. If you later decide to vote in person, you do not have to vote absentee, but now you have a backup plan. Ballots will start to be mailed on September 4.

Here is a video that explains the importance of re-electing President Trump, and says it much more eloquently thank I can in an email.

Do you think that the left is not planning an entirely different country should they win? Read this; it lists the demands of leftist organizations: release all criminals, defund the police, pay everyone for doing nothing, raise taxes, support radical social agendas. And then look at the list, towards the bottom of this document, of those organizations supporting this agenda. You may belong to some of those organizations. Do you want to reconsider your support for them?

If you have not yet decided that the socialists are coming for you, now is the time to educate yourself on the left's agenda, and to educate yourself on the conservative candidates. Here is a link to all the candidates, with photos, backgrounds, and their websites.

If you want to save our country - VOTE. If you have time or the means, consider contributing to a candidate, writing a letter to the editor, posting on Facebook, talking to your neighbors. Donate money to candidates or to the Republican Party if you can. Chatham County Republicans, all volunteers ourselves, can use your help in making phone calls, knocking on doors, handing out literature, staffing the polling places, working in the headquarters, and many more activities. You can sign up here.

If not you, then who? If not now, then when. We need to be brave in the face of an existential threat to the nation our founders envisioned.

And finally, for some encouraging words, watch this video from President Trump.

Happy Independence Day 2020!

I recently drove from North Carolina to Kansas on family business. Along the drive there were a lot of signs about the upcoming presidential election - and, except for one Biden bumper sticker beneath a Hillary bumper sticker on an old Volvo, the enthusiasm was all for re-electing President Trump. I guess that shows the national news networks may have it wrong on who is leading in the hearts of the electorate. It was also great to see all the American flags along Highway 64 (unfortunately only once you get out of Chatham County).

We observed some people wearing masks, but a lot more not wearing masks. In the Kansas county we visited almost no one was scared of the coronavirus, AND there have been zero cases of COVID-19.

Businesses are hurting because of shutdowns. My favorite Steak-n-Shake along the highway in St. Louis is closed permanently, and grass is growing in the sidewalk. Stores may never reopen. Hotels along the way seemed to be staying open but with much less business. Take-out fast food seems to be the rule, although the only restaurant in the town we visited was doing a booming sit-down business.

I think if you are concerned about the coronavirus for whatever reason, then stay home and try to stay safe. There is no absolute safety in life, though. Otherwise, take prudent precautions and lets get the country back in business.

Opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect the Chatham County Republican Party official position.