Bet you're surprised to hear from me...I’m going to be offline for a while; possibly a few weeks. Since I may well be away till after the midterm elections, I have a few requests for anyone reading this who happens to live in the U.S.:
(1) REGISTER TO VOTE! And if you’re already registered, CHECK TO MAKE SURE! Why do I recommend checking? Because apparently some people are up to dirty tricks, and no less than four states—one of which is Ohio, but the other three are not yet known—have had their voter rolls quietly purged, as of October 1st. Purging is done to get rid of ineligible voters, people who’ve died or moved out of state since last election, but it’s not usually done this close to an election—and such purgings don’t usually deliberately target college students and people living in low-income areas of the city! [link]
Anyone who’s moved anywhere, not just out of state, since last time they voted… anyone whose address had a tiny error or mismatch in it when compared to other state records, anyone whose data wasn’t perfect… all have been purged, and those people won’t find out they’re ineligible to vote until they show up at the polls on Election Day. Provisional votes are available for such people, but in very limited numbers, and for those who show up after the provisional votes have run out… too bad, so sad. So even if you don’t live in Ohio, check to make sure you’re still registered! Call your local county auditor’s office; it’ll be listed in the government section of your phone book. There’ll be a phone number for the BoE, the Board of Elections, too; they’re the ones who’ll decide if you’re really eligible or not. And if it turns out you’ve been purged, be prepared to provide hard, irrefutable documentation of your residence, in order to prove your eligibility to vote.
(2) PICK YOUR CANDIDATES CAREFULLY! At federal, state and local levels. Voter’s pamphlets and brochures should be out by now; read what’s written in them, visit the websites. Research who you’re going to grant power over you! And if you want to know where a candidate stands on a particular issue that’s near and dear to your heart—such as a woman’s right to control over her own body, and access to contraceptives—there’s still time to send emails to candidates and get replies.
Compared to sorting through the declarations and promises of challengers for seats, it’s easy to take a good look at what your incumbents in Congress have been doing with the power you gave them last election. You can examine their voting records in the House and Senate, for all the major voting issues up to the end of September of this year:
[link] and [link]
And FYI, the information on their votes and attitudes concerning reproductive issues can be found right here: [link]
(3) Once you know who you’re going to vote for, VOTE EARLY! Most people think you have to wait until Election Day to vote, but in most cases that ain’t true; that’s just the day that the Board of Elections opens up branch offices to make it easier for people to vote. In three-quarters of the states, early voting is allowed; just go down to the poll offices that are open and say you want to vote early. Here’s a list of the states that allow early voting: [link]
And for those states that don’t allow in-person early voting, you can still ask for a mail-in absentee ballot, and mail it in to vote at any time up until the deadline of midnight November 7th. Don’t wait until the last minute and find out that something’s gone wrong in your life or in the election machines that will prevent you from voting on November 7th!
Please, PLEASE take this election seriously. And ask your friends, family and neighbors to take it seriously too. Feel free to cut-n-paste any of the above information in your own journals and blogs and emails; the more people who see it, the better. Hell, send it on to people whose views you disagree with! As Thomas Jefferson said, "I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
