Post the Vote

:We interrupt our regularly scheduled Constitutional study for an exercise in applied democracy. In other words, voting in the November 6 midterm elections. For most of my lifetime, Americans have gotten all excited about the presidential election, and ignored literally every other opportunity to vote. This is not how democracy works (it’s not great for representative republics, either, so skip the semantics) and lately democracy isn’t working.

So. Have you heard the good news? About the mail-in ballot?

Post It Vote

If you live in Washington, Oregon, or Colorado, you probably already received your ballot in the mail. All registered voters in those states automatically receive a mail-in ballot. I remember going to the polls and signing in and smiling at the old folks volunteering and getting a little sticker to wear bragging that “I voted today!” I get how some people could miss that. But voting by mail gives you more time to research and think about candidates and issues, and has been found to increase voter turnout. So, if you live in Washington, Oregon, or Colorado and have already received your ballot: please stop reading this and go read your voter guide. Then, fill out the ballot and mail it in.

Please Vote.

If you live in one of those states and have not received a ballot, open a new tab in your browser and register to vote. It’s not too late.

Everybody Else

Even if you don’t live in one of the states where voting by mail is the default, it is not too late in most other states to request an absentee ballot for the November 6 midterm elections. Don’t let the name fool you – you don’t actually have to be “absent” to request an absentee ballot and vote from home. Figure out your state’s deadline here and consider putting in a vote-by-mail request.

Please Vote.

All Together Now

Whether you vote by mail or in-person, please vote. Don’t just vote for the shiny stuff like Senators. Pay attention to the state legislators, initiatives and referendums and judges and sheriffs, too. That’s where most of the real work gets done anyway. That said, if you live in Florida, Arizona, Nevada, Indiana, Montana, Texas, North Dakota, Tennessee, or West Virginia, your vote for Senator could have an outsized impact on national politics. And if you live in Texas and don’t vote for Beto O’Rourke, we can’t be friends anymore.

Please Vote.

Read your voter guide (if you haven’t already recycled it) or look up what will be on your ballot with Ballotpedia and Vote411 and read through it. It’s like an hour out of your life. And you know what they say, “You can’t win if you don’t play.”

Please Vote.