Vote Or Die

Shannon sends in this amusing story from her voter volunteer experiences in Canada:

I was 19 and working as a volunteer for the NDP incumbent in my riding. I did election day phoning on our voters’ list to see if anyone needed a ride to the polling station, and to remind people to vote. I called a dear old woman named Elsie and asked her if she’d voted yet. “Oh yes, dear” she said. I said, “Fantastic. And how about Lew?” and she said, “Oh, I’m sorry dear, he passed away on Sunday.” I said, “Oh goodness, I’m so sorry!” and she cut in with “Oh, don’t worry dear, I made him vote in the advance poll.” I sputtered and choked and tried not to laugh. We talked for a bit and she told me that he’d been sick a while, but there was no way he was “getting out without voting one last time”. I thanked her for her time and went to tell the office manager the story. As soon as I said that Lew died, she said, “Did he vote in the advance poll?” Everyone looked at her like she’d grown a second head, and while she looked sick for even having thought that, I smiled and said “Yup”. So everyone turned to me with the same look of horror and someone said, “Oh tell me you didn’t ask!” I explained that no, she’d volunteered the information, and I told them the story. We dipped into the campaign fund and bought her a huge bouquet of flowers and gift certificates for a nice restaurant.

I only hope that when I’m old and sick that I remember to vote. To care enough about a world you’re about to leave is an amazing gift.

Indeed. Vote early, vote often, and vote undead.

Via email, someone drew my attention to another voter information campaign targeting disenfranchised voters. If you have any issues registering to vote, you can call 866-OUR-VOTE to prompt an investigation into problems or questions about voting or registering to vote. The hotline is ran by Election Protection coalition (866OURVOTE.org), and is the largest voter protection effort ever launched:

Already, we have seen voter suppression attempts well
underway in Florida (No
Match/No Vote), Michigan (Foreclosure
black list), Wisconsin (GOP AG lawsuit to “review”
voter list), Ohio (blocking
one-day registration and voting window), Indiana (discriminatory
ID requirement and blocking satellite voting site in Ball State), Virginia (threatening loss of financial aid to out-of-state student voters), Arizona (proof-of-citizenship requirement aimed at minorities), and elsewhere. We can expect the systematic voter suppression efforts to only increase as election day draws near.

Meanwhile, if you aren’t registered to vote, GET ON IT. You can find out if you’re already registered, and if not, find out your state’s final registration dates here.