Election Day is tomorrow, and if you haven’t voted early or absentee, get your fine ass to the polls and bring three friends! If you care about abortion rights, you can watch and share this inspiring video from my courageous activist friend Nikki, who — along with two other women — stood up and spoke truth to power during Supreme Court hearings last week.
Don’t know where to go to vote or who/what is on your ballot? Behold! I have helpful links.
- Voting info for all states: Voter registration, required IDs, polling places, etc.
- Sample ballots for all states: Know what’s on your ballot before you go.
- Track your absentee or mail-in ballot. In 24 states, you may have an opportunity to “cure” any mistakes that would otherwise invalidate your ballot.
- Track your provisional Election Day ballot. If you wind up submitting a provisional rather than a normal ballot on Election Day, you’ll know what this means. If you don’t know, don’t worry about it.
- Election Day problems? Call the voter hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683). You can also report voting problems you experience or witness to ProPublica.
If your vote has been cast, you can help get out the vote in a super-easy, low-commitment way by talking to just five of your likely-to-be progressive neighbors by using Indivisible’s tool.
CLICK FOR NEIGHBORHOOD OUTREACH.
If you’re more ambitious and want to call voters at home or knock on additional doors, I have lots of Get Out the Vote options in my latest Indivisible Activate NYC newsletter.
I also have four great talking points in that newsletter, but in order to make them easily accessible, I’ll re-share them in this post. If you encounter someone who is thinking of not voting at all; not voting consistently all the way down the ballot; or flat-out voting for Republican fascism, ask them what their top concerns are. I’m 99% they will say (1) Abortion (2) Inflation or (3) Crime. Here are your relatively concise answers to those:
- ABORTION: If reproductive rights are important to a potential voter, your job is easy. Republicans are working towards a national abortion ban. Democrats are protecting the right to choose. Meanwhile, the overturning of Roe vs. Wade placed abortion access in the hands of state legislators for the time being, so it’s important to vote Democrat for ALL state offices. If you’re speaking to Pennsylvania voters, for instance, you can tell them that if the state legislature remains under Republican control, a state abortion ban will be on the ballot next year — no ifs, ands, or buts about it. It’s happening unless Democrats win.
- INFLATION. Yes, it’s bad! You should absolutely empathize with someone’s sticker shock. But inflation is also a worldwide problem, not a U.S. problem, and it’s driven by the COVID-19 disruption, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and price-gouging by companies. Potential voters may be aware that inflation is at a 40-year high, but they might need to be informed that corporate profits are at a 70-year high. Your key point is that Democrats are trying to do something about that. Republicans are not. Example: In the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which, among other things, caps the price of insulin; allows for the negotiation of lower prices of other medication; institutes a minimum corporate tax of 15% to crack down on massive companies that pay no federal taxes; and provides incentives for creating manufacturing jobs in America. ALL HOUSE REPUBLICANS VOTED AGAINST THE IRA. When it comes to gas prices, specifically, Exxon is making its biggest profit ever. ALL HOUSE REPUBLICANS VOTED AGAINST A BILL AGAINST GAS-PRICE GOUGING that was passed by a Democratic majority.
- CRIME. Crime is not up because of the defunding of police departments simply because that defunding DID NOT happen. Yes, people called for police budgets to be reallocated to social services that have been proven to reduce crime, but it wasn’t DONE. And the reality is that Republican-controlled cities and states have higher violent crime rates than Democratic counterparts because they have looser gun laws and fewer social services to keep people out of poverty. For New Yorkers, the problem isn’t bail reform, because any elimination or reduction of cash bail only applies to NONVIOLENT crimes. If anything, the Republican party will make violent crime more likely by relaxing what little gun control we have as a nation. Even cops can be persuaded to admit increased gun ownership with decreased background checks make THEM less safe.
Sometimes people stick to their ignorance. During phone banking in Pennsylvania today, one man told MrB — the former managing editor of the Wall Street Journal — that his main concern was inflation, but that inflation had nothing to do with rising prices. (Inflation IS rising prices/less buying power.) Can’t do much with someone who is that low-information, though we gave it our best shot. However, once in a while, people are really enlightened, though they don’t like to concede it. That’s when they say, “WELL, ALL POLITICIANS ARE THE SAME, THEY’RE ALL CORRUPT.” Here’s how I answer that:
- The people running for local office who are often brand-new to politics. So don’t just vote for your senator and governor and leave the rest of the ballot blank as many people do: Vote for the state legislature, the city council, sheriff, judge, school board, etc. As I said to a voter in Pennsylvania, there were three people on her ballot who were first-time candidates. They were not career politicians. They were regular people with regular jobs, like her, who were running for office because they thought they could make things better. If she wants change, why not support someone who shares her real-life concerns? This voter was more informed than many, but she didn’t understand this until I explained it.
Got other questions about voting, voting activism, or how to respond to people who need a little (or lot of) education? Leave them in the comments or holla at me on social media. Not Twitter though! I’m phasing that out due to Apartheid Clyde‘s expensive acquisition of the money-losing company.