#vote local

[azeutreciathewicked]

Let's GOOOOOOOO Georgia! Source Protip: Stop looking at polls. Don't look at the poll - they shouldn't affect your actions from here on. It's just a coping mechanism to feel like you have control in being "prepared" for an outcome. It's a psychological trick that is only going to hurt your mental health. What is good to do: make sure you're ready to vote. Research your local candidates and issues because local politics affects your everyday life so much more than federal. Stop looking at any story about the Orange Weirdo. Just stop. It doesn't matter what he does. He could be whisked away into Fairyland and it doesn't change what we need to do - vote blue. There are plenty of other threats out there that we need to keep out of office. Project 2025 will persist even without him. Instead: look at early voting data. Look at all the motivated people who are sending in their ballots and getting in line to vote early. Be like them, don't be a slacker and freeload. You need to vote early if you can and bring 3 people with you to vote too. Help your local friends and family do research on local candidates and issues. School board, corporation commissioner, lands commissioner, elections officials - these are all SUPER IMPORTANT. Read your ballot measures / propositions CAREFULLY. There can be bullshit tucked away in there to trick you. There may be stealth counter measures on the ballot to trick you and keep you from voting for the right ones. If you want to do more, find a voter help line or Get Out The Vote org to volunteer for. We help each other.

When we vote, we win!

[deadgodjess]

AK kept ranked choice and open primaries by SIX HUNDRED SIXTY-FOUR VOTES.

VOTE IN YOUR LOCAL ELECTIONS!

[whenweallvote]

If you’re eligible to vote, you have the right to vote. If you run into any problems or have questions before or on Election Day, call or text the Election Protection Hotline:

📞 English: 1-866-OUR-VOTE 📞 Spanish: 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA 📞 Arabic: 1-844-YALLA-US 📞 Bengali, Cantonese, Hindi, Urdu, Korean, Mandarin, Tagalog, or Vietnamese: 1-888-API-VOTE

[space-specs]

Your Guide To Voting in 2024

Yes, you may feel like everything is horrible and hopeless, and you don't want to vote. I'm here to not do that, and give you tips and info on why. Ultimately, I do not care what you actually vote only that you try to go and fill out something.

Make Sure You Are Registered to Vote

Check your registration status. This site has a drop down to select your state, which will link you to the website to check and see if you're registered.

Not registered? Go here. This site will tell you how to get registered in your state and will link you directly to the online registration if your state offers it.

Make sure you have a government issued photo ID. Driver's license, state ID, passport, etc. Many states require to you to present some form of ID to vote. Find out what counts in your state (and exceptions and provisional ballot rules) here.

Know you'll have difficulty making it to the ballot box? Check the rules for voting by mail/absentee voting in your state and see if you qualify.

Look up your sample ballot ahead of time! Lots of places provide a sample ballot which allows you to see what all the issues are ahead of time. Since this will vary by local elections, the best way to this is to look up "[your county name] sample ballot", possibly with the year tacked on to the end of the search. This may not be available until closer to election day, but it is a great way to get prepared for voting.

Other Voting Tips

This is where I get into the bit where it matters more to me that you vote than who you vote for. This is a personal principle of mine: everyone has the right to vote regardless of if I agree with what you choose to do with that vote.

You do not have to fill out every box on the ballot. You can leave some blank! Don't want to vote on President this year? Fine! Only want to vote on President and don't want to research other issues? Also fine. In fact, you can turn in a completely blank ballot if you want, and that is a political action, too. (Tip: parties note a blank box on issues because it indicates to them you were dissatisfied with your options)

You can bring notes with you! Too many issues to keep track of? Write yourself a note, print out a sample ballot and fill it out in advance to copy over, finding a voting guide and print it. As long as it is ON PAPER, you can bring it with you. (I verified this is universally allowed here)

Don't know where to start on research? The sample ballot is a great place to start just looking up candidates, but I also recommend checking out your local chapter of League of Women Voters. They put out a voters guides for each election that list pros and cons to various issues on the ballot.

The most important and most neglected elections are your local ones. Real grassroots change might be possible in your city, if you pay attention. Too overwhelmed by all this? Pick a few local issues to focus on, like the school board or city council. My city passed a trans-inclusive non-discrimination ordinance in a red state because people rallied around a handful of progressive city council members that swayed the vote. Even if everything feels hopeless, you make things better for yourself and your loved ones by actively engaging in your local politics.

Remember it's voting AND not voting OR. I know a lot of people are extremely dissatisfied with their options for this year's election, especially at the national level. Don't stop doing what you're doing. Don't stop protesting and boycotting and donating and talking about the things that matter to you. Get involved in your community. Find ways to make a difference. But also, go vote. Please.

Thank you for reading this. I hope something in here was helpful for you, and if it was, please consider reblogging this so that others can find it as well. If I've forgotten anything important, I welcome any helpful additions and will do my best to reblog those or add them to the original post as needed!

[onlytiktoks]

"Trish Carter-Goodheart, a Democratic candidate for the state House District 6 seat and member of the Nez Perce tribe..."

[redshift-starfire]

Getting my thoughts on the election out since I've been seeing some squabbling on my dash and I wanna make a futile attempt at clearing shit up that probably won't change anyone's mind

I'm gonna get the president shit out of the way first. Just vote for the genocide woman if you live in a swing state. We (leftists) all hate her, we are all aware that she won't stop the suffering going on in Gaza or Lebanon or anywhere else and she's not going to do much good here. I don't like voting against my morals or best interest, but that was never an option for us. Our voting system is first-past-the-post, winner takes all, so if we don't ensure that the genocidal cop woman with some good policy doesn't get into that office, then we WILL get genocidal old orange billionaire "man" who is hellbent on making everything infinitely worse. It's much easier to bully the former into ending the genocide than the latter. The latter will get you shot by the national guard. Vote strategically then bully relentlessly. We need to get our shit together if we want things to change for the better.

But more importantly:

THERE'S MORE ON THE BALLOT THAN JUST THE PRESIDENT

Do not fucking forget about Congress and how much of a hand they play in all this. God fucking forbid the GOP get another trifecta, if they do it's fucking over, we can't let that happen again. Conservatives are going out in droves to vote early and we need to beat that. A dem majority (especially a supermajority) would make it infinitely easier for the progressive caucus to get their bills through. And that would make many things possible, including better border policy and a ceasefire. This is the best outcome we can hope to have.

VOTE FUCKING LOCAL

I've seen people talking a lot about conservative maniacs in office. THIS IS WHERE THEY ARE. GET. THEM. OUT. This election has State and Federal Senate and House seats up for grabs, Governors, Mayors, County Officials, Sheriffs. All people who have a much greater force on your personal material life than whoever's ass gets sat at that one chair in that one old ass building in DC. This is the one place in American politics where Socialist and Green party candidates are even anywhere close to viable right now and it's how we can get them to be more viable in the future. Do research and make your voice heard in your local area and conditions will improve no matter who the president is. Especially if you show up for primaries and runoffs. There's an independent journalist who makes leftist voting guides for my area and that's what I used to figure out who best to vote for (much more useful for primaries).

DO OTHER SHIT TOO

This is where you can do whatever really, so long as it helps. Poll watch to make sure the GOP doesn't try and completely derail this one. Cure ballots to make sure they're counted. Protest. Scream at people. Join a militia. Strike. Plan the revolution. Boycott. Jack off on Ronald Reagan's grave and post an image of the result on every social media site with the caption: "I'm doing my part!" Whatever. Go fucking wild. The most important thing is that you bully the shit out of whoever is in office until they do something. We by no means should only be doing one thing to shape this society into one we like. Reform/revolution is a false dichotomy. If we do both at the same time, one of them will work.

Do not let them know peace.

[unb1nding-t-b0y]

Hey finished voting yesterday and I saw a lot of people running unopposed especially at the local levels so...

hey you, yes you -the millennial with a degree and a special interest in politics or making the world a better place. Run for local office! The way Republicans have infiltrated everything is by taking over smaller office positions and then ranking up. Run for senate, congress, mayor, local districts. Get in there! Alot of environmental policy starts at the city, county, and state levels. We need you, And honestly alot of those jobs are easier to get and have more job security than most entry level positions. Some of the positions are unpaid and not everyone can take them and those positions are important to so hey you gen z And millennials with good educations that are still getting support from your parents. RUN FOR LOCAL OFFICE PLEASE.

[ardeawritten]

prayers for the friend of mine in a local county election who may have to go round 3 against the world's most annoying loudmouth because no one is paying attention to county elections rn but this is the kind of position that actually affects day-to-day life and opportunity for a few thousand residents

[spinningthehamsterwheel]

Election night anxiety

Okay, starting to get initial rolling vote counts in reporting, so I'm going to be avoiding any sources of info for... as many hours as I can manage. I've done what I can, and results now will be what they will.

Reminder that if you haven't already, to get out and VOTE. Remember, in a lot of states (including several swing and red states) you have a legal right to time off to vote. And even in the states that don't, many companies have signed a national initiative to guarantee it for their employees.

Get out there before the polls close, no matter where you are. It matters.

[ferylcheryl]

If you think your local library should have a chocolate fountain and water slide or whatever, be sure to vote on local mandates today that will at least help fund its staff earning a living wage and maybe repair any leaking ceilings or replace lost or damaged books.

[azeutreciathewicked]

IMPORTANT: 1200 BALLOTS FROM PHILADELPHIA HAVE ALREADY BEEN REJECTED DUE TO VARIOUS ERRORS. Voters need to check with their elections office or at the site above (for Philadelphia) to ensure that their ballot was not rejected. If it was rejected, they need to contact their elections office ASAP for options to ensure their vote can be counted. Other Pennsylvania voters should proactively check with their elections offices NOW as well since some counties ARE NOT REQUIRED TO INFORM VOTERS THAT THEIR BALLOT WAS REJECTED. Pennsylvania ballot tracker here: https://www.pavoterservices.pa.gov/Pages/BallotTracking.aspx If you know anyone in Pennsylvania who is eligible to vote, check on them and help them out.

[sinceyousawvienna]

If my cat did it then so can you.

[whenweallvote]

We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again 📣 there are no “off years” in democracy!

When we organize, mobilize, show up, and vote, we can make real change in our country. 💥

Ready to join us? There are hundreds of local elections happening less than a month away. Make a plan to vote at weall.vote/voterhub

[xccentriktigress]

Living in an at-will state is so wild. My boss can fire me because they don't like me, but won't because then I can file for unemployment. So they try to get people to quit.

I have multiple co-workers who agree that I am being bullied, harassed, but I have no protection. Missouri doesn't have any kind of harassment laws, unless it's explicitly discriminatory and even then you have to really fight to prove it.

I'm not the only one being treated poorly, but I might be the most aggressively spite-fueled. The whole situation is infuriating.

Anyway.

Fuck corporations.

Go free file your taxes, it's not that hard.

Participate in local voting.

[worrynoodle]

🔹️This is a great article on the benefits of reading [click me]

🔹️Reading leads students to infer the characters’ thoughts and feelings (McTigue et al., 2015). The fact that students need to understand the narrator and the primary and secondary characters’ different points of view promotes the development of cognitive empathy (Guarisco & Freeman, 2015; Lysaker & Sedberry, 2015).

🔹️"54% of adults (in the US) between the ages of 16 and 74 years old -- lack proficiency in literacy, essentially reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level" -Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy (2019)

There is a direct link between a lack of literacy and the way US Americans treat one another and how they vote. They lack empathy, they lack the literacy needed to comprehend what they're voting for, they demonize intellectualism, they demonize education, they ban books. This is a major major problem.

Censorship, book bans, defunding the department of education etc. Are all in the plans for these next four years (and beyond) this is only going to get worse.

If you are or know of an expert in this topic, I'd love to hear what you think would help this problem in the US on a national scale.

But for now, my unprofessional opinion is KEEP READING. Get physical copies of books if you can. Read banned books, read fiction with characters outside of your experiences etc. If you have family that struggles with this get them some easy books to start with, tell them about libby and hoopla. Try to be there for them and encourage good reading habits.

Buy books locally! Don't buy from Amazon (unless it's an indie author publishing through them). Amazon sells their books at a cut price to suffocate their competitors. If you can't afford the books at stores go to the library! (Or libby or hoopla)

Support your local library!

Discourage anti intellectualism just like the post above. (Another I've seen is discouraging the "sometimes the curtains are just blue argument" that also feeds into media illiteracy.)

Vote in local elections. Vote in midterms. Vote in major elections.

Get involved in your local school board and discourage book bans and censorship

Be kind to other people. Be an example of how that empathy pays off. (Don't be empathetic towards hate though, of course)

If you have more to add I'd love to hear it.

[azeutreciathewicked]

This is a good informative video about how ballots are printed, sorted, mailed, received, and processed. While it's specific to Maricopa County, the largest county in the state of Arizona, this is a pretty standard process. I'm proud of our Secretary of State, Adrian Fontes, for leading a solid team of officials and workers in supporting a huge, diverse population that speaks multiple languages with professionalism, transparency, and ethics. Remember that most elections officials are doing this work because they believe in serving the people, and they want to protect the democratic process and support people's rights to vote.

We are all on the same team, and everyone is doing their part. Your part is to vote and help others around you to vote.

When we vote, we win!