It’s Saturday morning. In addition to the weekly cleaning and replenishing of bird baths and feeders, I’m voting. This year, reacting to reports of vigilante “observers” staking out ballot drop boxes in Phoenix, we’ve decided not to mail our ballots but to use a drop box instead. No doubt by now election deniers in Tucson are copying their fascist cousins in Phoenix, so we’ll give them a thrill.
Seems to me we’ve got it pretty sweet in red state Arizona, at least when it comes to voting. You can register to vote or update your information through the DMV, in person or online. Everyone goes to the DMV sooner or later, am I right? It may not be automatic, which would be ideal, but at least the DMV always asks if you’re registered to vote when you check in or log on, and offers to walk you through the process if you aren’t already. If you check the box for mail-in voting, it’s good for all future elections — you don’t have to request a mail-in ballot ever again. You don’t need a stamp to mail your ballot, and if you don’t trust DeJoy’s minions to deliver your vote on time there are drop boxes outside every county facility — like the one at our neighborhood library, which I’ll visit later today.
I think Republicans in the state legislature passed a restriction this year on delivering other voters’ ballots to drop boxes, meant to prevent get-out-the-vote organizers from collecting ballots in neighborhoods, old folks’ homes, apartment complexes, or reservations, and dropping them off in bundles … a restriction aimed, or course, at poor and minority voters. But there haven’t been any shenanigans like the one I read about yesterday in Ohio, where you need two stamps to mail in your vote but nowhere in the voting packet does it say so.
Five states — Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and Oregon — automatically send mail-in ballots to all registered voters. In 29 states, Arizona being one, voters can opt into mail-in voting with no excuse required. In 17 states, you can’t vote by mail unless you’re disabled, serving overseas or out of state, or can prove your boss won’t let you go during voting hours on election day. Here’s the list. Interestingly, states in all three categories are a mix of red and blue, but I’m pretty sure Republicans in all states are working to restrict or eliminate mail-in voting.
When I’m king, you’ll be issued a national ID along with your birth certificate. It’ll be your proof of citizenship, and, when you’re old enough, your voter registration. All voting will be online or by mail. I don’t know why Republicans always resort to restricting voting, either through gerrymandering, making it harder to vote in person or by mail, or putting out misleading information the day before an election. As far as I can see, the people they’re trying to keep from voting — Hispanics in particular — are just as likely to vote Republican as Democratic. Or would be, if the Republican Party wasn’t so hostile toward them.
I’m getting tired of typing out “Republican” every few sentences. Can I just abbreviate it to “Stupid”? Here’s just one reason why you need to vote, from yesterday’s news:
The Stupids’ ideas and beliefs don’t deserve a moment’s consideration. Stupids may as well be an alien race, so divorced from sense are their concerns.
You do have to vote, though, in order to keep the Stupids down.
Gee, Paul, why don’t you say what you really mean?