Register to vote! And then hang on tight to it!
1 Comment Published October 6th, 2008 in APB, On marriage and commitment.
[I feel compelled to remind us all that the ongoing election season content caveat applies here: nothing directly relating to lesbians or children or lesbians' children appears below, except that we all ostensibly live in a democracy, whether vital or compromised or, as I often tend to think so many things are, a little bit of both.
I know, I know: no one comes here first for election news. You come here probably hoping I'm fixated on something other than the upcoming elections, for once. But through the dense underbrush of my deadline-driven work, my feeble LD hope these weeks is a two-parter: (1) that regular LD readers will return after Nov 4, if the one or two piano keys being banged here begin to grate on the nerves, and (2) of those that do keep coming back, maybe somebody will find something they might pass on to someone else they know, (or that they do to someone they know). My fond hope is that one tidbit of information can be the thing that tips the tipping point. Or maybe it's not info at all; it's that one morsel of lesbian family love, and it puts a human face -- yeah, my children's faces -- on the abstract issue of gay marriage for them (ever so relevant in AZ, AK, CA, and FL in about a month from now).]
Our dilligent Electoral-vote.com Votemaster, Andrew Tannenbaum (who?), has posted this today, and I feel all citizeney (that would be as opposed to “maverickey”) about clipping it and posting it here:
…even if you think you are registered, you may not be. Unbeknownst to them, thousands of people have been purged from the voter rolls. Project Vote lists the names and addresses of purged voters in Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas (so far). If you live in one of these states, check the list TODAY to see if you have been purged and also check for friends, relatives, and neighbors.
For weeks, I (along with many of you, I’m sure) have been reading dreary articles about attempts (by anyone but Republicans?) to foil voter registration. Intrepid, democracy-loving journalist Laura Flanders asks the question:
From reading tests to ID challenges, felon disenfranchisement laws and the endless purging of voter rolls the U.S. is almost alone among industrial world democracies in having no uniform federal voting law. WHY IS THAT?
Then she gathered a bunch of really smart people to attempt to answer it.
If that ain’t enough, here, Robert Kennedy, Jr. shows a little of the stuff many of us wished we saw more of on the national stage, getting fired up about stolen votes:
His project, with Greg Palast: STEAL BACK YOUR VOTE. Check out their downloadable comic book-style voter guide, whose subtitle is: “Six Ways They’re Stealing the Election — and the Seven Ways You Can Steal It Back.” Especially fabulous for the first national election voting set.
Yep. Because the only thing worse than waking up to a November 5th with Proposition 8 passed and McCain/Palin elected would be to wake up with the deja-vu all over again feeling that, gosh, the polls right before the election sure did lead me to believe that we were going to win! Huh! WTF just happened?
Anyone in the mood for a smelly blast from the past can review RFK, Jr.’s “Was the 2004 Election Stolen,” which ran in Rolling Stone, June 1 2006. Like your citations thick n’ heavy? (Or perhaps, got a skeptical friend?) Well he’s got 208 of them. (Citations, that is; not skeptical friends.) You know. To help erase the doubt that it can’t happen here.
Of course all this drama is dramatic only if one has actually hauled their arse to the polling place (or to one’s absentee or by-mail ballot) to actually vote. And I think we all know, don’t we, that we residents of the US of A do this at a rate lower than nearly every voting citizen in every free voting country except Poland. Tied for second-to-last (only 54% of us bother) out of 37 noted here at Wikipedia’s Voter Turnout page. Highest turnout, where voting isn’t compulsory? Malta! At 94%! Go, Malta!
I’m sure you’re registered, and going to vote. But how ’bout pass the info on to someone you know who you think might not be registered.
Below are state-by-state deadlines, with links to state registration info, thanks to the USA Today article that Professor Tannenbaum hepped me to, “Both parties target voter registration, turnout.” Please don’t just take my word for it, though, or USA Today’s: check out the info for your state. And US citizens abroad: here you go.
Alabama, Oct. 24
Alaska, Oct. 5 [may also register on Election Day]
Arizona, Oct. 6 (TODAY)
Arkansas, Oct. 6 (TODAY)
California, Oct. 20
Connecticut, Oct. 28
Delaware, Oct. 11
District of Columbia, Oct. 6 (TODAY)
Florida, Oct. 6 (TODAY)
Georgia, Oct. 6 (TODAY)
Hawaii, Oct. 6 (TODAY)
Idaho, Oct. 10 (this Friday) [may also register on Election Day]
Illinois, Oct. 7 (TOMORROW)
Indiana, Oct. 6 (TODAY)
Iowa, Oct. 25 [may also register on Election Day]
Kansas, Oct. 20
Kentucky, Oct. 6 (TODAY)
Louisiana, Oct. 6 (TODAY)
Maine, Oct. 14 [may also register on Election Day]
Maryland, Oct. 14
Massachusetts, Oct. 15
Michigan, Oct. 6 (TODAY)
Minnesota, Oct. 14 [may also register on Election Day]
Mississippi, Oct. 6 (TODAY)
Missouri, Oct. 8 (this Wednesday)
Montana, Oct. 6 (TODAY) [may also register on Election Day]
Nebraska, Oct. 24
Nevada, Oct. 1
New Hampshire, Oct. 25 [may also register on Election Day]
New Jersey, Oct. 14
New Mexico, Oct. 7 (TOMORROW)
New York, Oct. 10 (this Friday)
North Carolina, Oct. 10 (this Friday)
North Dakota, Oct. 28
Ohio, Oct. 6 (TODAY)
Oklahoma, Oct. 10 (this Friday)
Oregon, Oct. 14
Pennsylvania, Oct. 6 (TODAY)
Rhode Island, Oct. 4 [may also register on Election Day]
South Carolina, Oct. 4
South Dakota, Oct. 20
Tennessee, Oct. 6 (TODAY)
Texas, Oct. 6 (TODAY)
Utah, Oct. 6 (TODAY)
Vermont, Oct. 29
Virginia, Oct. 6 (TODAY)
Washington, Oct. 4
West Virginia, Oct. 14
Wisconsin, Oct. 15 [may also register on Election Day]
Wyoming, Oct. 6 (TODAY) [may also register on Election Day]
1 Response to “Register to vote! And then hang on tight to it!”
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Lesbian Dad is written by a parent who answers to the name "Baba" and works toward a world in which amor does indeed vincit omnia. 
I discovered recently that although American citizens who live abroad are able to register to vote, the votes they cast are only counted if the election is close. I suppose that could be a reflection of them not actually having to live with the consequences of their choice?