Friends,

The election is upon us! Early voting started Saturday and mail in voting is underway as well. There are several topics we will cover in this issue:
Question 2: Ranked Choice Voting
Election Day
Getting our Candidates to Victory!
Royal Crest Redevelopment

Question 2: Ranked Choice Voting

The North Andover GOP is solidly opposed to this measure. The Democrats are pushing this hard. Ed Markey has thrown his support behind it, and Maura Healey has organized phone banks calling in support of it. That alone should tell you it isn’t going to be a good thing for us. Nationally however Ranked choice voting has been a disaster and has received bi-partisan opposition. Below are a few of the people opposing ranked choice voting:

Democratic Governor Jerry Brown (D-CA) witnessed a mayoral election in Oakland where the winner won with voters’ seventh and eighth place rankings. He said, “Ranked-choice voting is overly complicated and confusing. I believe it deprives voters of genuinely informed choice.”

Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) said RCV “has often led to voter confusion and the promise that ranked choice voting leads to greater democracy is not necessarily fulfilled.”

Hazel Dukes, President of the NAACP New York State Conference said, “Ranked Choice Voting is not for us and we will vote no.”

Maine Republican Congressman Bruce Poliquin said, “the voters in my district voted against RCV twice, yet due to an RCV statewide ballot question that was funded from national organizations, my Congressional district was forced to use it. Even though I was the first choice of most residents of my district, my election was overturned. This problem could happen to any candidate in any state.”

In 2019, RCV was voted down in the city of Lowell, MA. The RCV option “is for the winner to become a loser and a loser to become the winner," said Kamara Kay, Chairman, Lowell Republican City Committee.

“We need to remove barriers to voting, and I think ranked-choice voting is counter to that. My research shows that when you make things more complicated, which this does, there’s going to be lower turnout,” Jason McDaniel, Associate Professor of Political Science, San Francisco State Univ.

Black, Latino and Asian Caucus of the New York City Council comes out against ranked choice voting https://www.cityandstateny.com/articles/politics/campaigns-elections/black-latino-and-asian-caucus-nyc-council-against-ranked-choice

You can reference more information at the official No on 2 site here: https://rankedchoiceisnochoice.com/

Election Day

We need people to come out on election day to hold signs. Signs will be available at the High School for all of our candidates. Please, come out and hold signs for whatever time you can!

The Mass GOP has also requested people sign up as poll watchers. If you wish to be an election monitor you may sign up here: https://massgop.com/poll-watching/

Getting our Candidates to Victory!

There are less than 2 weeks to election day. In fact, given the crazy world we are now living in over a million Massachusetts voters have already voted. That is roughly a third of all people that voted in the 2016 Massachusetts Presidential election.

Now, more than ever we need to get out the vote! All of our candidates are set up on Red Dialer to make get out the vote calls. If you are willing to make calls for any or all of our candidates please see the instructions below or Email us @northandovergop@gmail.com.

The best way to get our message out has always been door knocking and dropping literature. We would welcome anyone willing to knock on doors and place door hangers for any of our candidates.

Of course, all of our candidates can use cash donations to supplement their efforts. Please consider donating to all of our candidates, as well as the No on 2 people. To donate, or volunteer, please see the links below. Alternatively reply to this email and we will be in contact with you.

Kevin O’Connor
Volunteer: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc33jRT9d97VAzBqhiEoDC3X-5AQZL5ITwjtVOGTlEztf1qSA/viewform
Donate: https://secure.winred.com/kevinoconnor/donate

John Paul Moran
Volunteer: https://johnpaulmoran.com/volunteer/
Donate: https://secure.anedot.com/stand-with-john-paul-ce4276d0-9455-4439-9549-e7ed4e270ef3/donate

Jeff Dufour
Volunteer: https://jeff4rep.com/volunteer/
Donate: https://secure.anedot.com/dufour-committee/donate

Royal Crest Redevelopment

There is a proposal to completely redevelop Royal Crest. Currently there are 500 market rate apartments at Royal Crest. The proposal is to expand the number of units to 1,000. However, the expansion will create enough “affordable” units as to put us over the number we need to satisfy our 40B requirements. The development will also include a number of luxury condos and retail space. We will be detailing this project in future newsletters.

Please follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GOP01845
Check our website for frequent updates, and sign up for our mail list: https://northandovergop.com/
Please sign up on our website to volunteer for current and future campaigns: https://northandovergop.com/volunteer
Lastly all local events for our candidates and other items of interest are posted on the events page of our website: https://northandovergop.com/events

Thank you,
CJ Gangi: Chairman
Kevin Dube: Treasurer