This email has a LOT of valuable information. Please read it a couple of times. You probably will want to print this one out and keep it as a reference.

Please do NOT post this information to Facebook or other social media sites. We want to keep our strategies to ourselves.
 

 Safety: 

1. All petition work should be done in teams of two.

2. Never enter a residence. It is not safe and wastes your time. 

3. Always have a fully charged cell phone with you at all times. 

4. Stop gathering signatures when the sun goes down. 

5. Personal safety is your responsibility. We ask that you avoid confrontation. So if people want to start arguing or become verbally abusive, politely excuse yourself. We do not have time to try and reason with the unreasonable or convert the unconvertible. Remember, never wrestle with a pig. You both get muddy and the pig enjoys it.

Rules of Petition Gathering: 

1. Each petition section is assigned to a single gatherer who collects all the signatures for that petition. The person assigned the petition must sign an affirmation that they personally witnessed all the signatures in front of the notary so they cannot “loan” their petition to another person to gather signatures. If both people are going to gather signatures, they each need their own petitions. 

2. Under no circumstances are you to disassemble, remove staples or take apart the petition packet. It must stay as a single unit. If a page becomes accidently detached, re-staple that page to the packet, but do not remove other staples. 

3. Please ensure you use black or blue ballpoint pens (no gel or rollerball).

4. The circulator of the petition must not sign or have the petition notarized until all the signatures are signed. Signatures signed after notarization are invalid and will be thrown out. It could also cause the entire petition to be thrown out. 

5. Signers of the petition must be registered voters registered in Senate District 11. As the petition itself states, “Do not sign this petition unless you are an eligible elector. To be an eligible elector you must be registered to vote and eligible to vote in Colorado Senate District 11 elections.” 

6. Do not cross names off, add information, or correct anything on the petition. If a person makes a mistake while signing the petition, have them cross off their information on that line and start over on another petition line. Verify that all fields of the petition are filled out after each signature. If information is left off, DO NOT add it yourself. Doing so invalidates the signature.

7. The campaign will be validating information on the petitions. Do not make any personal notes or markings on the petitions. If you want to take notes to help you, make those notes on your walking map or another piece of paper.

8. Inform voters that signing the petition indicates that they wish to have a recall election, it does not bound them to any vote or support of any specific candidate during the recall election. Inform voters that our campaign is simply to create the recall vote and that our committee does not support or endorse any specific candidate to replace the recalled individual. 

9. Inform voters that we are an independent grassroots organization. We are not affiliated with any specific candidate or political party.

10. A person’s name and address on the petition must match their name and address on their voter registration. For instance, if a person is registered as Jonathon C. Doe, they cannot put John Doe on the petition because it would be invalid. They MUST put the exact same name (including initials) as they have with the county clerk on their voter registration card. Too many invalid signatures on your petition will invalidate ALL of the signatures on your petition. THIS DETAIL IS VERY IMPORTANT TO ENSURING VALID SIGNATURES! 

11. If you have a walking map, you will have the first and last name of the person registered to vote. WE ARE CURRENTLY WORKING THIS ISSUE BECAUSE MIDDLE INITIALS AND NAMES WERE LEFT OFF THE WALKING LISTS. THE NAME ON THE PETITION MUST MATCH THE NAME THEY USED TO REGISTER TO VOTE. (We will have a solution shortly. For now, please verify the names via the website link in this paragraph 11. We will be working on fixing future walking lists). 

12. If you are at a store or do not have a voter’s name in front of you, you will need to perform a lookup (via a smartphone, tablet, or laptop using 3G/4G or WiFi) on the Secretary of State’s voter registration website,https://www.sos.state.co.us/voter-classic/secuVoterSearch.do?transactionType=voterSearch. (see separate instruction sheet on how to navigate this site) This website will show their current voter registration and the address associated with their registration. Once again, their name and address must match what is on their voter registration card. 

13. If you are at a location where you cannot verify voter registrations, try and keep that petition separate so all the potential “bad apples” are on one petition. Please let us know by sending an email to remorseco@bfdf.org or your scheduler to inform them of the petition number that has unverified names. We will have someone closely review that during the review process to ensure we have valid names and signatures. 

14. All petition circulators must be 18 years old at the time they circulate the petition and must be U.S. citizens. Being a resident of Colorado or from the district subject to recall is not necessary. 

15. The signature must not be a duplicate signature. This occurs when a voter signs the same petition more than once. 

16. Please track the average time it takes to obtain signatures and report it back to the campaign. This will help the campaign adjust the schedule in order to make the required signatures within the 60 days.

17. Finally, after the petitions are completed, the petition carriers will need to take them to one of the following Bank of Colorado locations listed below in order to have them notarized/collected. You will need to have your driver’s license or other government issued photo ID with you.

 18. 

19. When in doubt, email remorseco@bfdf.org or contact your scheduler about any questions you encounter while circulating the petition. 

20. If approached by the press, remind them that you are an individual helping to recall a representative who has not listened to his constituents. Just follow the talking points listed on the cards we have provided. Refer them to the BFDF.ORG website and the PRESS link at the top which will get them to Nick Andrasik.

Obtaining Signatures:

1. Always wear your Volunteer Collector name badge to identify that you are collecting signatures for a petition. Doing so will help ensure the opposition does not contest our signatures by stating people did not know what they were signing. 

2. Introduce yourself, state that you are collecting signatures from registered voters in Senate District 11 to help recall Senator John Morse, and then use the talking points below (also on the business card handouts) to explain why we are working to recall him. 

3. If a person shows an interest in signing the petition, invite them to read the petition. Try to answer any questions they may have. 

4. Always remain polite and respectful even when people do not agree with what we are doing. If they are not interested in signing, thank them for their time and move on to the next person. Arguing or escalating to an altercation does nothing to obtain more signatures for recalling Morse. Since we are trying to recall a non-responsive (non)representative who is intent on taking away our civil liberties, we must stay on task even though our opponents will attempt to frame the debate and try to bring us down to their level by vocal intimidation. Be polite and excuse yourself. 

5. When going door to door, if a person is not home, leave a card. The recall is in the news and people will be interested to know more.

6. When someone does sign a petition, thank them for making their voice heard. Ask them if they would be willing to have a sign in their yard during the recall election. 

7. You will start to get a feel for this, but some people will be interested in doing more than just signing and actually volunteering. For those who are willing to help to more, provide them one of the handout cards and ask that they sign-up on the website www.coloradorecall.com.

8. Always have a few black or blue ballpoint pens with you.

Talking Points:

Why Recall Senator John Morse?

1. Refuses to listen to constituents or read your emails. 

2. Changed rules disallowing citizen input on legislation. 

3. Promised to focus on jobs and the economy, but instead pushes gun control, civil unions, sex education, illegal alien tuition, etc.

4. Wants to blame gun owners instead of violent criminals. 

5. Passed bills that are forcing companies to leave the state and will cost Colorado’s economy millions of dollars plus hundreds of lost jobs.

Helpful hints from Larry Liston (slightly edited by Rob Harris):

1. Larry spent 2 hours in and around three streets. In that time, he went to 18-19 homes and got 12 signatures. He went back to several houses TWICE, since he was in the area. He is emphatic that this effort will take time and persistence. Please understand...........this will BE WORK. If people were home, he usually spent 8-10 minutes with them explaining things and answering questions, getting proper signatures. 

2. Be prepared to follow up with people. Not everyone was home. But many people not at home will still sign the petition, so FOLLOW UP will be critical to getting our signatures. DON'T GIVE UP!!!!!!!!! If not home one day, make sure to come back another day. 

3. We are providing you some business cards that include the talking points on one side along with who can and can’t sign the petition and different ways to reach us via social media and the web. If a person is not at home, leave this card on the person’s door with your name and number. If you are not comfortable with that, just leave the card. 

4. Most people are not familiar with the recall yet and have little or no knowledge of it, much less how it works. The Republicans were very receptive to signing the petition. Of the republicans Larry spoke to, he only had one guy tell him no. He had one UAF voter sign, and his hot button was that Morse wanted to impose liability on manufacturers; he didn't like that at all.

5. It is important to know the various talking points and learn some example of details behind each talking point. We will be providing those details and examples to you in the near future. 

6. When he got signatures, he tried to ask people for other names in the neighborhood or someone else at home. By doing that, he got 4 other signatures. ASK for other LIKE MINDED people, the signers know other folks and will help you!!!!!! ASK for REFERRALS.

7. DRESS APPROPRIATELY!!!!!!!! He has done this a lot. Whether you know it or not, people will judge you as to how you look and DRESS. If you go to someone's door looking like a bum, they will tune you out in a heartbeat. NO flip flops, no dirty jeans, no T-shirts!!! Wear a collared shirt and have a smile on your face. BE civil and friendly and do NOT go into people's houses, it wastes your time.

8. Best time to see people: 9:30-12:00 and 4:30-7:00 on weekdays. 9:00am - 12 noon on Saturdays and 1:00pm - 5:00pm on Sundays. It is OK to knock on doors that say NO SOLICITING. We are not soliciting, we are informing people. Very few people ever object when they realize that you are NOT SELLING something. You only want to give them information.

Many thanks to Dan Mach who put much of this training document together. This information should NOT be shared via Facebook or any other social media. We will be providing a sanitized version for publication on the website soon. Thank you for all of your help in this important effort. Every single person makes a difference including YOU!

El Paso Freedom Defense Committee