Voting, Made Simple
It’s voting season, Baybee! I live in Washington, where everyone votes by mail all the time, no matter what kind of hell is happening around us. But if you are voting my mail for the first time, you probably already know to vote early, make sure your ballot is going in an approved ballot drop box, and triple check that you checked all the right boxes, signed the back of your envelope, and gave it a little kiss before you drop it off. The last part is optional but as someone who loves voting, I highly suggest it.
I love voting by mail - it gives you time to read all about what’s on the ballot and make an informed decision. I typically set up my kitchen table with my voters pamphlet, my ballot, and my laptop. The language in the voters pamphlet is often so convoluted and inscrutable that I like to use my laptop to get the information in a clearer way. There are a lot of sites that will explain what’s on your ballot, but my personal favorite is the Progressive Voters Guide. It’s only available in a few states currently: California, Colorado, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. BUT, for those states they have a guide for how to vote progressively in every race in every election, all the way down to your particular address. Here’s an example of how a ballot measure is written on the actual ballot, versus the simple, straightforward language used in the Progressive Voters Guide:
(Cut to me at my kitchen table, simultaneously shocked and unsurprised that we don’t already investigate prison deaths.) The first image is how the measure appears in the official King County voters pamphlet, and the second is what you see on the Progressive Voters Guide. You can figure out what the official statement means, but, at least if you’re me, you have to read it twice and stop a few times to verify that you’re reading what you think you’re reading. The Progressive Voters Guide not only says the same thing in simpler language, but if you for some reason don’t want to understand what the statement is proposing, they just tell you right at the top what bubble to fill in. It could not be easier.
And that’s not all. Progressive Voters Guide also has a subscription function, where they send you an email before every election with the guide right there, in the body of the email. This time they didn’t tailor each email to each congressional district, so I did have to do a tiny bit of research on my own for a few measures and races, but the link to the page I needed to go to was in the email. I MEAN. So easy!
Now get out there and vote! Not just in the 2020 general election! Learn about local politics! Care about your community! Be an active citizen!
