Surprisingly, I’ve discovered I may never vote on Election Day again. For the longest time, I had identified myself as the person who would roll out of bed on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November around 5:30 a.m., throw on some clothes, and be the first or second person in line to vote at 6 a.m.
For the longest time, I couldn’t vote in the morning on primary days in New York because the state had this stupid law: Only the people who lived in New York City, the immediate suburbs, and Erie County (Buffalo metro) could vote at 6:00 a.m. The rest of us could only vote from noon to 9:00 p.m., which I thought was discriminatory against upstaters. However, they fixed that flaw a few years ago, thank goodness.
There are many opportunities to vote before the Primary and Election Day. The polls in New York State open two Saturdays before Election Day and run for nine days from that Saturday to the Sunday before Election Day. The polls are closed on that Monday, but then, of course, Election Day is open.
According to the State Board of Elections, New York State is on pace to surpass the number of early voters in the 2020 election. So, I get a tad cranky when folks complain about the long lines. They have NINE days of early voting PLUS Election Day.
I started voting by mail during COVID-19. The early morning Election Day thing that used to self-define is gone. This year, I voted early on Tuesday between 3:00 and 4:00 PM at the Board of Elections in downtown Albany, which used to be the DMV.
I got nothing if you’re looking for last-minute suggestions to tell your friends how to vote. Heck, the Weekly Sift guy is just doing referrals. But watch John Oliver anyway.
Swing time
I feel bad for all of you in the so-called swing states—Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan—because you must be inundated with presidential ads. We get almost nothing here except some ads on national programs.
Most are for a few congressional seats south of Albany, but the Albany media market reaches them. Fortunately, I recorded most of the television I watch, so I can fast forward through all of them, most of which were produced not by the campaigns but by the party congressional committees. They look, for the most part, built to scare people, and I’m not that interested. It’s not that I don’t care; the New York congressional races may determine whether the Democrats have control of the House of Representatives. So it’s not that they’re unimportant, but it’s not enough for me to watch them.
On Sunday, the Los Angeles Times noted this about djt: His “increasingly dark vision of America is less of unity and promise than of suspicion and grievance directed at those who cross him.
“Librarians are harassed, teachers vilified, election workers threatened. Immigrants are demonized, and armed groups march outside state capitols. Even meteorologists are targeted in conspiracy theories.”
I increasingly feel it’s my duty and obligation to become an election worker, if not in 2025, then in 2026. I’ve done it twice before, most recently in 2021. Sometimes, you have to face the beast.
Listen to I Bought Myself A Politician – MonaLisa Twins
