Yes, vote!

[sonia]

People are posting exhortations to do your damndest to vote in the Nov 3 US election as early as possible (for US citizens, of course), as well as in any primaries and local elections coming up.

Oregon has vote by mail and drop boxes at all the libraries, so we're less affected than most.

I am heartsick that voting is OBVIOUSLY being suppressed and disrupted before our eyes, and we have no recourse except to urge each other to try harder. Yes, please do work as hard as you can and possibly risk your health or your job to exercise your right that should be made easier instead. I am grateful to each person doing the extra work. I am heartsick that there isn't a better alternative.

I am heartsick that the US Postal Service is being dismantled BEFORE OUR EYES and all we can do is point and say, "He said the quiet part out loud! He IS doing it to suppress votes!" The USPS was something about our country that worked. Our healthcare system is the laughingstock of the developed world, our income inequality and racism and sexism just keep getting worse, but at least the mail got delivered reliably, and those were good solid union jobs. Welp.

The brazenness of it is breath-taking. "I'm going to slow-roll the pandemic response because it looks like it's mostly in Blue states." "I'm going to do everything I can to steal this election." "Nyah-nyah, you can't stop me."

I hope Biden/Harris win the election ANYWAY. I don't see how that's possible given all the cheating already in place right in front of us. It was clear to me that the 2016 election was stolen when we heard the results. Now we all know it was stolen, and nothing happened from that. I am tired of waiting anxiously for things to get better.

Comments

[suncat]

I'm in one of those horrible blue states, Minnesota.

We voted early by mail for our primary (which was Tuesday, August 11). We both thought the process was documented well from the Secretary of State's office. The website also had a tracker. So I could see when our ballots were sent out, when the ballots were received back by them, and finally when they'd been validated "and will be counted". Because of course counting would only begin once the polls closed on Election Day. There were also many places to vote early in person, like at our City Hall. The mayor of our suburb publicly got out there to urge people to vote, and emphasized how easy and safe the early voting options were.

I am grateful for all of this where I live.

I am very aware that even here, the story could change for November. Will it be reasonable to vote by mail again? I'd like to. But maybe we'll have to go to City Hall early and vote in person there. I have friends who've done that locally and say that, too, is straightforward here.

BTW, don't know if you would have seen it, but Ilhan Omar beat her Democratic challengers in the primary. Even though one of them was being supported by *tons* of outside money. It's not that I think the challenger would have been a *bad* person to send to Congress. But it was so blatant that he was being funded as a more "appealing", less "divisive", alternative to Omar.

[sonia]

Yay for voting! And plans for voting!

Very yay for Ilhan Omar! Thanks for sharing the good news!

[silveradept]

One can only hope that everything that has been seen, and continues to be seen, will result in a revolt in all the places he thinks of as his base and his strongest supports and they will also vote him out. And all the enablers that allowed him to do all of this brazenly and openly, and that if there is a new government, instead of it being "ah, let bygones be bygones", they reverse, and investigate, and prosecute all of these things that have been said aloud. Even over the cries of how it's all partisanship and setting a bad precedent, because otherwise the precedent is that you can do flagrantly illegal things while you're in office and nobody will call you to task for it, so long as your party controls at least one house of the Congress.

[sonia]

I have nothing against hoping. Please hope!

Seems to me, the hopes you're talking about depend on our government structures continuing to exist and function as expected. The structures that are currently (metaphorically, so far) on fire.