Eric Piehl comments on ☑ voting informed in every election

Why vote?

Many elections are won or lost by less than one or two percent;  some by only a few tens or hundreds of votes.  It happens every election cycle.  Vote to make a change, or to keep things the same.  When we vote, we do make a difference.  Not perfect, but better.

Or vote to give yourself a sense of pride and accomplishment.  Watch the video above or to left.  For full effect, select the video image, then icons ⛶ fullscreen, ㏄ captions , ▶︎ Play, and ⏯︎ ☒ Skip Ads.

Women weren't given the right to vote— they fought for it!   For three generations, apparently.  Remember that as your next election nears.

People of color are still fighting for their voting rights.

👥︎ Generation-Y and Generation-Z young people have far more at stake than us boomers.  We will help you while we can, but after we are gone, the future is up to you.

If you are Gen-Y, Gen-Z, or a cool Boomer who understands urban symbology, please see Eminem explicit video Mosh above or to right, with support by the lyrics version.   For full effect, select the video image or link button, then icons ⛶ fullscreen, ㏄ captions , ▶︎ Play, and ⏯︎ ☒ Skip Ads.  Written 17 years ago, it still speaks to us today.

Hamilfans (fans of Hamilton ):

Rise up.    — John Laurens and ensemble

I wanna be in the room where it happens.    — Aaron Burr

I am not throwing away my shot!    — Alexander Hamilton

Must be nice to have Washington [DC, and your state and local gov­ern­ments?] on your side.    — Aaron Burr

Don't wait for it like Aaron Burr.

History has its eyes on you.    — George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and ensemble

This page provides some resources, to help you, with minimum work, VOTE:

• In every election—in my precinct, the Primary elections are where the real decisions are made.
• In every race—including those down-ballot races:  Initiatives, judgeships and Drain Commissioner!

If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

    — 🔊︎ Song Freewill by band Rush.  1980-01-14.   For full effect, select the video link button, then icons ⛶ fullscreen, ㏄ captions , ▶︎ Play, and ⏯︎ ☒ Skip Ads.

Let's get started!

Step 2:  How to vote

You Can Vote Safely In-Person Despite Coronavirus.  Here's How.  Consumer Reports.  October 10, 2020.

📅︎ A month before Election Day (or two or three) (now if you don't know when that might be), …

While you are printing stuff, if you are going to 👤︎👥︎☑ vote in-person, and think you might run into ☑🛂︎ trouble while voting, please 📄︎ print anything you might need from the 🛂︎ trouble section below.

As it gets closer to time to vote, you will use your sample ballot to …

Step 4:  ☑ Vote!

☑ Vote when, where and how you found out back in Step 2, using the information you found out back in Step 3.

If your jurisdiction has 👥︎📫︎☑ universal mail-in voting or you wish to use 📫︎☑ absentee voting, prevent the most important threats to your vote not being counted:

1. Mark your ballot as you intended back in Step 3, following the instructions provided, which in my jurisdiction includes:
    ◦  using a ✎✎ blue or black pen,
    ◦  filling in ⬮⬮ the bubble completely.
2. If instructed to by your jurisdiction, place your ballot inside the inner security envelope / security sleeve.
   In some jurisdictions, with the ballot tab sticking out.
   Not doing this risks having a naked ballot.
   Then place this in your outer return envelope / declaration envelope …
3. ☑ Verify that you signed your name exactly as when you Registered.   ◀Most common reason ballots are rejected!
   May be the same as on your Driver's License.
   May be consistent with your name in your ballot's address label.
   Put on today's date — not your birthday!
   Some jurisdictions require a witness signature!
   Some jurisdictions allow you to include a 📱︎☎ phone number and/or 📧︎ email address, for them to contact you if your ballot has a problem.  [Sounds like a good idea to me.]
4. Return your ballot to the polls before your jurisdiction's deadline.  ◀Second-most common reason ballots are rejected!
   In my jurisdiction, you can do this by:
    ◦  by mail (if needed, apply postage to outer return envelope / declaration envelope) (in my jurisdiction, I believe it has to be received by the election board on or before Election Day — USPS says to mail 7 days before),
    ◦  in-person at the same clerk desk, or
    ◦  in a secure drop box, inside or outside your clerk's office.  And in Washington State, outside each library!

If you mess up, all jurisdictions have a process where they will spoil your ballot and issue you a new ballot — see your Clerk!

Most jurisdictions also have a website where you can check on the status of your vote:

• whether and when your request was received,
• whether and when your ballot was sent to you, and
• whether and when your ballot was received!

[All three steps working for me in 2020 September and October!]


If you are worried about the 📫︎ US mail:

• read Election Mail by USPS,
  
• sign up for USPS Informed Delivery, and
• consider eliminating a mail step or two …

In August 2020, we filled out our absentee ballot applications at home, and I turned them in at our Township Hall.  (Your Clerk might be in your City Hall.)  Our Township Clerk said they would mail out our ballots as soon as they got them, in a month.  Then we can return our ballots (up to 45 days before the election) either:

• by mail,
• in-person at the same clerk desk, or
• in a secure drop box outside.

On my way out, I checked the drop box:  sturdy, steel, bolted well to the sidewalk.  Any of these options seem fine.  [And in October, they added another secure drop box in the lobby, too!]

Since our Township Hall is convenient to our home, and we can easily travel there during business hours, we dropped off our ballots at the clerk's office.  And used the opportunity for a walk downtown in the sun.  Lovely!


"The hidden science of mail-in voting."  PBS Nova Now.  Thursday, August 27, 2020. or its 🔊︎ audio

If 👤︎👥︎☑ voting in-person, 📅︎ early or on Election Day:

• Take your 📝︎ marked-up sample ballot (from back in Step 3 ), and fold it into your pocket.
  Yes, it is legal to bring this paper into the voting booth with you—your 🛂︎ poll workers may have rules against using a 📱︎ phone in the voting booth.
• If you think you might run into ☑🛂︎ trouble while voting, please 📄︎ print anything you might need from the 🛂︎ trouble section below.
• If you have 🆔︎ gov­ern­ment-issued picture-ID, bring it—that is simpler.
  If you don't have such id, vote anyway.  Just be prepared for 🛂︎ poll workers to provide you a provisional ballot—hold them to it—it is your right to vote in this manner.
• When you get to the polling place, if presented with several precincts and you don't know your precinct number, ask a friendly poll worker (probably one of your neighbors), or turn around—there is probably a ▭ precinct map posted on a wall or table nearby.
• When you get into the ballot booth, unfold your 📝︎ marked-up sample ballot, and use it as a guide to cast your ballot quickly and accurately.
  Including all those down-ballot races:  initiatives, judgeships and Drain Commissioner!

If any ☑🛂︎ trouble while voting, in the 🇺🇸 USA, contact the:

• US Department of Justice Voting Rights Hotline,  📱︎☎ 1-800-253-3931
  or
• ACLU Election Protection Hotline:
  ◦  in English  📱︎☎ 1-866-OUR-VOTE or send an 📱︎SMS text "OUR VOTE" to 97779,
  ◦  en Español/English,  📱︎☎ 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA
  ◦  in Arabic/English      📱︎☎ 1-844-418-1682  بالعربية or 📱︎☎ 1-844-YALLA-US  بالعربية
  ◦  🌏︎ Asian languages Bengali বাংলা, Chinese 中文, English, Hindi, Korean 한국어, Tagalog, Urdu ودرأ, and Vietnamese Tiếng Việt,  📱︎☎ 1-888-API-VOTE
  ◦  American Sign Language ASL  ▶︎  video call,  📱︎💻︎ 1-301-818-VOTE
  or
• Michigan Bureau of Elections.  📱︎☎ 1-517-373-2540

  — 🇺🇸 ACLU series Know Your Rights Voter Intimidation
      ( Michigan ACLU Know Your Voting Rights in English, Spanish en Español, in Arabic  بالعربية ), Vote.org Election Protection, and Georgetown Law's fact sheet, and state[?] fact sheets, on voter-intimidation laws. 

If you see something, say something!

If you expect 🛂︎ police contact, what to do with your electronics.  (page 19)

After you vote:

• Give yourself a pat on the back for exercising your sacred civic duty.  Thank you for helping save the world!
• Save your 📝︎ marked-up sample ballot for a day or two, to see if you are a leader or a follower.
  Perhaps using your local media or 📰︎ newspaper , or other medium ( Michigan > yourCounty ).
  Then ♻︎ recycle!

Step 6:  Anytime, contact your elected officials

Now that you've helped vote in better public servants, keep in mind that they are merely better, not perfect.  Therefore, you will have to do it all over again, for the next election cycle.  But until then, your elected officials should be closer to your side, or at least more educable …

6.2  Learn how to listen to your public servants

Learn how to listen to listen, understand, and think critically, including:

• logical fallacies,
• rhetoric, and
• logic.

7.1  [Immediate]  Social Justice

If you:

• want a strong democracy,
• want social justice, and/or
• think Black Lives Matter #BLM,

then:

• get your 👪︎ family, 👥︎ friends and neighbors registered to vote (can refer them to this page's Step 1 Register to vote );
• inform your 👪︎ family, 👥︎ friends and neighbors how to vote (can refer them to this page's Step 2 How to vote );  and
• eliminate barriers to voting (see sections below).

7.3  [Medium]  📫︎ Mail-in Voting, 📅︎ Early Voting, and Automatic Voter Registration AVR

If you want to increase voter participation, especially:

• in mid-term elections (governors and mayors decided here!),
  
• in primary elections   (many races actually decided here!),
  
• in down-ballot races  (the new generation of leaders decided here!), and
  
• during local/regional/global emergencies (!),

then work to get your jurisdiction to adopt:

• 📫︎☑ Mail-in Voting aka postal voting;
• 👤︎📅︎☑ Early Voting aka pre-poll voting or advance polling;  and
• Automatic Voter Registration AVR, or Same-Day voter Registration SDR aka Election Day voter Registration EDR.

7.5  [Hard]  Nonpartisan redistricting versus 🐍︎ gerrymandering

If you:

• don't like having your general election results predetermined in the primary,
• don't like the candidate choices you have been given,
• want candidates to reach out to you,

then work to get your jurisdiction to adopt nonpartisan redistricting — an end to 🐍︎ gerrymandering "Geometry versus Gerrymandering."  Scientific American.  November 2018. (Michigan Radio story) (Michigan organization Voters Not Politicians).

For full effect, view the videos above or to right by selecting a video image, then icons ⛶ fullscreen, ㏄ captions , ▶︎ Play, and ⏯︎ ☒ Skip Ads.

Nonpartisan redistricting is Solution 3 in the Gehl-Porter election-reform trifecta, as listed in radio podcast Freakonomics episode 356 at 43m00s 🔊︎ audio

7.7  [Hardest]  Align political boundaries with watersheds

If you:

• want to make it easier for your communities to protect your water and soil,

then work to align political boundaries with watershed boundaries.

For example, using 🇺🇸 USA EPA ▭ map on ArcGIS > icon with four squares Select a Basemap > map USGS National Map, I would live in the neighborhood of Little Carl Creek, county of Lower Grand, and state or nation of Lawrencia.

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