11.02.08
Nonpartisan Political Post — Voting and Voting Information
If you are reading this, and you are an American who plans to vote on Tuesday, November 4 (and I hope that you will, if you are eligible and you have not already voted), please do me and yourself and everyone a favor and spread the word about a few simple things:
1) Remember that voting is both your civic right and your civic duty. No one may legally keep you from voting. No one may legally tell you for whom you must cast your vote. No one may pay you to vote one way or the other, or threaten you if you do not vote one way or the other. Your vote is your decision and your decision alone. If you are a citizen and over the age of 18, you are eligible to vote.
- Look up where you need to go to cast your vote: http://justvote.org/votinglocation/
- Look up what ID you need in order to go cast your vote: http://justvote.org/IDrequirements
- Employers are required by law to permit you to take time off in order to vote. If you need to look up the laws to prove this to your employer, you can look up the laws by state here: http://www.findlaw.com/voting-rights-law.html
- If you believe you may be registered to vote but are not sure, you are permitted to vote anyway via a provisional ballot. This is legally guaranteed by Section 302 of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 (15 USC section 15482). How or whether your vote will be counted will depend on where you live, but the important thing is to know that even if you aren’t sure whether you’re registered, it doesn’t mean that you do not have the right to go vote.
- Deadlines for voter registration are listed here: http://justvote.org/deadlines Be aware that some states allow registration up to and including election day, so even if you know you are not registered right now, you may still be able to register and vote!
2) Doublecheck your vote when you are in the voting booth. Regardless of how you vote, double check that the votes you cast are the ones you mean to cast. Check and doublecheck and doublecheck again. There have specifically already been some reported problems with electronic voting machines flipping straight-ticket Democrat votes for Republican ones; other issues with voting, registration, and particularly with electronic voting machines may arise. Make sure the votes you cast are the votes you mean to cast!
3) If you notice any problems with your voting process, immediately talk to one of the precinct workers who is there to help with the voting. Be patient and be clear. Precinct workers are there to make sure you get to cast the vote you want to cast. They are not permitted to be partisan or favor one candidate over another. Remember that you have the right to vote and to have your vote recorded and counted accurately. Also, you can call a toll-free number at 1-877-874-6226 to report any problems encountered in your voting experience. There is also a Twitter Vote Report program in which a number of organizations (including National Public Radio) are taking part which will enable vote problem reports to be done by text message, Twitter, etc.: more information is available here: http://twittervotereport.com/ You can and should also report voting problems to your state Board of Elections.
Be as patient as you can if you run into trouble, or even just into long lines. We’re all in this together, and we all have to count on each other to be civil, kind, reasonable, just, and humane during this process.
Happy voting!