|  Yesterday afternoon, I went with a friend to Chester County Voter Services because we'd been unable to find her name on the PA voter list. The people at Voter Services were great, as they always are. The guy at the front counter routed around in his computer system and found that the name they had for her had an "a" in the middle instead of the "o" it should have been. He allowed her make the change on her voter card, and then sign it. He then made the change in the computer and told her to expect her new card in four weeks.
While we were there, another woman came in, trying to get an absentee ballot for her 91 year old mother who physically cannot go to the polls. She asked if it was a problem that the mother's drivers license was expired, and several people came out from the back and all said to use the last four digits of her Social Security number instead. "That will work" "Get the number" "We want everyone to vote" And that IS Chester County Voter Services. I've dealt with them for years as someone running drives, as well as having attended training from them to work the polls. There has always been an absolute commitment to having everyone vote, and to making sure every vote, whether in person, by absentee or by provisional ballot count. Sadly, that isn't true for every county, and certainly not for the state legislature. And then it was on to Voter Registration. It was busy, and the time just flew by! Big thanks to Marilyn, with whom I've been standing Friday night registration for years, and who knows all too well that I have some hereditary prosopagnosia and is very helpful about my limitation. We signed up new voters, made changes to addresses, and spent extra time with every woman who passed us to make sure they checked that their voter registration was not under their maiden name and their ID under their married name or vice versa. We also handed out a lot of absentee ballot applications for kids who would be away at college, after helping them determine in which state they would be better off voting. Last week in the evenings, I started going around my neighborhood with my phone, using it to make sure all my neighbors are registered under the name they think they're registered under, making sure they know where to vote if they're new to the neighborhood, and giving "first touch" for those with non-Republican registrations. Most interesting voter of the evening was the woman who came up to us and asked how she could, and I quote, "unregister". As Marilyn said, rightly, "just because you're registered, it doesn't mean you have to vote", I blustered "you don't WANT to VOTE!?!?!?" It turned out that she just didn't want to go to jury duty. We explained that jury duty rolls are determined by drivers licenses and not voting rolls, found out that she'd be out of town on election day, and got her hooked up with an absentee ballot application. All very exciting, and we'll be out there again today and tomorrow. Remember, you can put www.canivote.org into your phone and determine your state site for registration checks. You can then check all your friends, family and neighbors. It's pretty low stress, even for those of you who don't like to interact with strangers. Remember, the right can spend as much money as they want, but we can turn out actual voters. On MSNBC yesterday, they mentioned that Republican dark money and SuperPacs have spent over $300 million on ads so far, while its only about $20 million on the Democratic side. And we're still winning on most polls in most places. Think about that for a minute: they wanted to be able to spend unlimited money, they're SPENDING outrageous amounts of money, and they're not getting the traction they thought they would. Elections are won one voter at a time.
Get yours today. It's more important than ever! As always, if you have registration questions or need assistance, just drop me a note. |
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