Just A Small Town Girl

If you're a political animal, you've probably seen a gazillion posts like this, and yes, mine will say pretty much the same things you've seen everywhere else. If you aren't- well, you might want to read. I know there are people worried about this, and who have questions they haven't been sure where to ask. (I just spent the morning doing GOTV phone calls and had a lengthy conversation about the shirt/button issue.)

1. VOTE. Seriously. This is the first and foremost. I'm not sure how anyone has missed this, but just in case, Election Day is Tuesday, November 4. Know where your polling place is and when it's open. (The same link covers what to bring with you.) You can also find out if it is possible to do early voting in your area.

2. Be prepared - and I don't just mean review your sample ballot and know the candidates and issues.

Protect My Vote has a good rundown on problems you might encounter. Remember, if you are a registered voter, do NOT trust anyone who tells you that you are not allowed to vote, polls have closed early, polling has been moved to a different location/date, or that you must take any sort of test to vote. These are all tactics that have been used to prevent people from voting. You have the right to vote- insist on it! If your polling place appears to not be open at its scheduled time, or anyone tells you it has moved, call your local election officials for accurate information.

Some polling places have been telling people that they can not vote or can even be arrested if they are wearing any campaign shirts, buttons, etc. It is true that you can't campaign in polling places, and many locations have regulations regarding campaign material in/near polling places. If you are wearing any campaign gear, be prepared to either cover it or remove it if necessary.

Check to see if there have been problems reported in your area. There are a number of places you can check. In addition to the well-established Election Protection, this year you can Video the Vote or Tweet the Vote- Twitter Vote Report is aggregating all voting related tweets.

3. If you run into problems:
-Be aware of provisional ballots.
-Call 1-866-OUR VOTE (1-866-687-8683) to report problems and get advice.

4. Questions not covered here? SmartVoter has a good list of FAQs. You can also leave a comment and if I can't answer, I can point you in the direction of someone who can.

Regulars here probably know I'm big on voting. I've done voter registration drives before, although not for several years (for obvious reasons.) So I was interested to find out that Rock The Vote had a widget you could download to put onto websites/MySpace/blogs that would let you register people.

But when I clicked on "read more", I found out that by using this widget, I'd have access to any data provided (Address, Email, phone, etc.) It also wasn't clear to me who else would be able to access that data. So I passed. I'll just be pointing people to the website, where you can download the National Voter Registration packet to print out and mail in.

1. There are more than 2 choices. This is not a binary system. There are more than two candidates. There is the option to write in. There is the option to simply cast no vote at the top of the ticket. Stop acting like if I say I'm not currently planning to vote Obama I must be a fan of John McCain.

2. Words matter. Ever heard that? Cause the more I hear of Barry O, the more I become convinced that he has a tin ear. And for someone who's supposed to be such a brilliant speaker with a mastery of rhetoric, that's deadly.

3. "Get over it." The more you act like an entitled, petulant snot, the less likely I am to see thing your way. You want Clinton supporters to "get over it"? Let's see concrete policy positions.

4. The FISA thing. I'm sorry, why exactly should I trust Obama to have some super secret plan to make FISA better after the fact and restore the Fourth Amendment? Why should I have faith that he is a good and honorable person who really does have the best thing for the country and preservation of the Constitution at heart? Why should I trust that he isn't just going to USE that power for himself once he's in office? We're in year 8 of the presidency of a man who said the same thing. Bush's motto has been "Trust me, for I know better than you do." I didn't vote for him the first time, but I think the saying "Fool me once, shame on you; Fool me twice, shame on me" applies here. Why ANYONE would extend that kind of trust to a man who is running to BE the one with all that power is beyond me.

5. OMG, ROE V WADE!!! You Obamatons haven't been paying much attention for the past twenty years or so, have you? Roe v Wade is all but dead in the water. The right to choose is nothing more than empty theory in large swathes of the country. So find yourself another club to hit recalcitrant women over the head with. Besides, if you're so damn worried about reproductive rights perhaps you should be concerning yourselves with the real target, Griswold v Connecticut or the intervening milestone Eisenstadt v Baird.

6. "You're doing exactly what Karl Rove wants!" You know what? I take my decisions entirely without reference to what that disgusting pool of syphilitic slime says, does, or wants. You might try doing the same. He is really not the mastermind you make him out to be. He's actually just a stupid little man who delights in playing dirty tricks. Stop trying to make him out to be Voldemort.

7. "You're not a real Democrat if you're not lining up behind Obama!" Keep saying that often enough and you might make it true. I'm not into goose-stepping. I'm already pondering switching to the Greens. The more verbal feces like this you hurl, the more likely I am to decide that it might be nice to be part of a party that gives a shit about social justice, equal rights, the environment, and education.

Majikthise has an excellent post on McCain throwing out dog whistles to the right wing fringe regarding judicial appointments. But she doesn't go far enough. McCain isn't dogwhistling Roe-which would mean abortion. McCain specifically dogwhistled Griswold-contraception. For those who live in ignorance, that's what the real objective of the so-called "pro-life" movement-which actually not for life, but against choice. They want to outlaw contraception too. They want to go back to a time when biology was destiny, and every sex act carried with it the risk of ruining or ending a woman's life, and many children were not wanted children, but punishments their mothers could not escape. That's their goal. This isn't about life, it's about control.

edit Darn it, while I was writing this post up, Lindsay edited her post, and changed the direction of it considerably. It's still worth reading, but it now largely ignores the Griswold/Roe issue.

election reform commission suggests change to primaries, voter registration

key points:

• regional primaries, with a rotating schedule (although inexplicably nh and iowa get to keep their prized early status.)
  
• states in charge of voter registration, with linked registries that will automatically remove a voter from state a's rolls if they register in state b.
  
• photo voter ids
  
• all electronic voting machines should print paper records
  
• effort to make registration and voting more accessible, using ideas like postal and internet voting, and mobile voter registration vans
  

my thoughts: why on earth should iowa and nh be allowed to keep their "first off the mark" primaries? explain why two of the smallest states should be allowed to exert such undue influence on the political process. there as many people in chicago as there are in all of iowa. there are more people in san diego than in new hampshire. so who died and appointed them the kingmakers?

and i think ALL voting should be on paper. screw electronic voting machines. paper ballots are great. you can count them over and over, and there are no hanging chads. if people are inclined to tamper with them, it's got to be a little more obvious than changing some lines of code.