Tuesday, November 3, 2020. You probably have that date circled on your calendar, it's election day next year.

You should definitely have Tuesday, November 5, 2019 on your schedule. That's when you next get to vote, here in Kansas. This is the most important election this year, for your local government, your school boards, and your community colleges.

But what about Tuesday, October 29, 2019? That's the date of this year's Stand Up, Speak Out, the MainStream Education Foundation's 19th Annual Cocktail Reception and Dinner Program.

We already know which issues are going to be most prevalent in the 2020 Kansas Legislative Session that runs from January to about May. The Kansas budget, public education, reproductive freedom, and giving health care to working Kansans who cannot get it now. Today, we'd like to talk about Medicaid expansion (Medicaid is called KanCare in Kansas).

As you celebrate Labor Day today, we wanted to bring you three snapshot items, in our usual brief holiday update.

The news these days is enough to frustrate even the most engaged of us. Our President makes successively more outrageous statements, while his administration quietly ravages our country's protections, most recently endangered species and LGBTQ Americans. You'd be forgiven if you just wanted to curl up in a ball and hope 2020 gets here before something irreversible happens.

At the start of this week, we sent out an email talking about the many opportunities Kansans had to support our LGBTQ neighbors in cities considering legal protections for sexual orientation and gender identity.

Shawnee will be holding a public comment session followed by a vote on Monday (8/26), on a non-discrimination ordinance (an NDO) at the City Council meeting.

Kansas has a long history of supporting all Kansans, in education, in economic opportunity, in our communities across the state. Kansas was founded as a free state to fight for equality, and Topeka was the site of the Brown v. Board of Education case that integrated the nation's schools. That's why Kansans are fighting today for equality and dignity, and to end discrimination for our LGBTQ neighbors and friends.

Kansas held primary elections last Tuesday, for local municipal and school board related positions. Typically, these off-off year elections are low turnout affairs, even more so in the primaries. This held true in 2019, unfortunately. The enthusiasm of 2018, and the anticipated record-breaking turnout of 2020 was nowhere to be seen last week. But you can make it better.

This has been a terrible weekend for our country. The shootings in El Paso and Dayton, and in Kansas City, have left us with the need to do something. Thankfully, tomorrow, Tuesday, is election day. We can celebrate our democracy at the ballot box. We urge you to vote as if our lives depended on it, and take as many people as you can with you.

This is going to be a simple Update, because you have but one task today. Vote. No, it is not election day, but you can cast your vote today! No, it is not 2020, but you can vote for important positions that affect you directly, and you can do it today! It is time. We vote every August and November in Kansas. Get out there and vote, and bring people with you!

The news lately has been filled with stories of hateful acts. From the President basking in racists chants, to continued institutional attacks on immigrants, to the murder of an African American transgender woman in Kansas City, and more. You don't have to look far to find people committing acts of hate, emboldened by the validation they feel from the White House, and ignored by a public too weary to join the cries to resist.