What are you doing for the U.S. election? October 31, 2020 7:17 PM Subscribe
Have you voted yet?
Are you making calls, texting or donating? Got any interesting stories to share?
I have made calls for several candidates for the New Mexico Legislature. Today I made calls to Georgia voters for Biden. I only got to talk to one voter, and she told me that she isn't supporting Biden.
I am also slightly involved with the local anti-coup effort, and we have made some smallish donations.
I have made calls for several candidates for the New Mexico Legislature. Today I made calls to Georgia voters for Biden. I only got to talk to one voter, and she told me that she isn't supporting Biden.
I am also slightly involved with the local anti-coup effort, and we have made some smallish donations.
We had 10 pollworkers and 30 voters. That's less than half a voter per pollworker per hour. Everyone already voted.
My poll inspector kept pulling her mask down to talk. Indoors. Oh, and our "break area" is in the same general air space as voting, (but certainly more than 6 ft away) and you're allowed to eat and drink. Indoors. Unmasked. As far as I can tell, this eating and drinking indoors unmasked 6' away thing is fully endorsed by the county.
So I guess in a sense I am glad that turnout was so low today. At least it wasn't as much superspreader event as it could have been.
posted by aniola at 7:27 PM on October 31, 2020 [5 favorites]
My poll inspector kept pulling her mask down to talk. Indoors. Oh, and our "break area" is in the same general air space as voting, (but certainly more than 6 ft away) and you're allowed to eat and drink. Indoors. Unmasked. As far as I can tell, this eating and drinking indoors unmasked 6' away thing is fully endorsed by the county.
So I guess in a sense I am glad that turnout was so low today. At least it wasn't as much superspreader event as it could have been.
posted by aniola at 7:27 PM on October 31, 2020 [5 favorites]
Voted via county drop box two weeks ago, and got confirmation that my ballot was received.
My library is an early voting location. We’re estimating that by EOD Monday we will have had 10,000 early voters just at our building! Every day when I pull into the parking lot I see the line stretching outside and I feel happy and hopeful. I also helped put together content for a voter’s info page on our library’s website and I’ve been taking lots of calls about voting procedures at our reference desk. I would literally do that all day if they’d let me!
posted by bookmammal at 7:38 PM on October 31, 2020 [5 favorites]
My library is an early voting location. We’re estimating that by EOD Monday we will have had 10,000 early voters just at our building! Every day when I pull into the parking lot I see the line stretching outside and I feel happy and hopeful. I also helped put together content for a voter’s info page on our library’s website and I’ve been taking lots of calls about voting procedures at our reference desk. I would literally do that all day if they’d let me!
posted by bookmammal at 7:38 PM on October 31, 2020 [5 favorites]
Early voted over a week ago. Some nifty ballot questions here in the Bay state. Donating a lil more tonight, with a sprinkle on close senate races. Going off island Monday, work Tuesday but I'll be well supplied with booze, food, love, hope, and sarcasm.
posted by vrakatar at 7:49 PM on October 31, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by vrakatar at 7:49 PM on October 31, 2020 [1 favorite]
I signed up to be a poll worker back in early September but they never contacted me to follow up and then I broke my knee anyway. I've been a bit preoccupied with the broken knee, but am otherwise opting for the "working voting into small talk when talking with friends" approach to sort of popularize it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:59 PM on October 31, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:59 PM on October 31, 2020 [1 favorite]
I forgot to mention that I did vote already. In line with me were a mother with her young adult daughter. The poll worker called out that she, the poll worker, had a new voter, and there was much clapping. Then another poll worker called out that she, the second poll worker, had a new voter and new citizen, so there was more clapping.
posted by NotLost at 8:06 PM on October 31, 2020 [14 favorites]
posted by NotLost at 8:06 PM on October 31, 2020 [14 favorites]
Following to ask what a Canadian can do!
posted by Singout at 9:01 PM on October 31, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Singout at 9:01 PM on October 31, 2020 [1 favorite]
I have an elderly neighbor who is a big Trump supporter. Very nice fellow actually. The neighbor, not Trump. Anyhow, he asked if I could drive him to the early voting location because his eyes were hurting. I drove him. I think he said the first time he voted was in 1956. For Ike I think. Said the only Democrat he ever voted for for President was John F. Kennedy and that was because he was Catholic. I said, "Even Nixon the second time (1972)?" and he said, "Sure, why not?" I was sort of egging him on and asked who his least favorite candidate ever was. Without a moments hesitation, he said, "That carpet bagger Hilary Clinton." When we got home, he tried to give be a $5 bill saying to buy myself a beer. I turned it down and told him after Biden's lockdown, we can go get one together.
I am voting on Tuesday.
posted by AugustWest at 9:25 PM on October 31, 2020 [17 favorites]
I am voting on Tuesday.
posted by AugustWest at 9:25 PM on October 31, 2020 [17 favorites]
I donated small amounts of money to the DNC (so apparently it's flowed straight into Facebook and consultants, oh well).
I'm in Washington state so I voted by mail; I did not walk it to a drop box -- I simply mailed it, and my vote has been counted. No phone banking for local initiatives this time, nor have I asked my parents (in Florida) about their vote, lest I don't get the answer I want.
Basically I am not getting out of the futon until this is over and I am lucky that I am able to more or less ignore it without personal risk.
posted by batter_my_heart at 10:01 PM on October 31, 2020 [2 favorites]
I'm in Washington state so I voted by mail; I did not walk it to a drop box -- I simply mailed it, and my vote has been counted. No phone banking for local initiatives this time, nor have I asked my parents (in Florida) about their vote, lest I don't get the answer I want.
Basically I am not getting out of the futon until this is over and I am lucky that I am able to more or less ignore it without personal risk.
posted by batter_my_heart at 10:01 PM on October 31, 2020 [2 favorites]
My dog and I walked over to the courthouse a couple of weeks ago and dropped off our ballot. I really wanted to make him a coat that says Good Boys for Biden/Harris but shoulder surgery thwarted my plan.
Did some phone banking today and am scheduled for more tomorrow. The system here is so vastly improved--the last time I did it was in 2018 and we were still having to dial every number by hand. Now we have the fancy autodialing software and the group stayed in a Zoom call throughout so the organizers could answer questions as they came up. It was a much less solitary endeavor, very pleasant.
posted by HotToddy at 10:57 PM on October 31, 2020 [7 favorites]
Did some phone banking today and am scheduled for more tomorrow. The system here is so vastly improved--the last time I did it was in 2018 and we were still having to dial every number by hand. Now we have the fancy autodialing software and the group stayed in a Zoom call throughout so the organizers could answer questions as they came up. It was a much less solitary endeavor, very pleasant.
posted by HotToddy at 10:57 PM on October 31, 2020 [7 favorites]
Washington voter here. And former R, independent for past 20 plus years. Still astonished to find myself voting straight D ballot. We filled out our ballots the day we got them and I put them in drop box outside election office the next AM, and literally did a small jig walking away (a first for me after decades of voting.). Tracked them electronically -- both received and counted. My job precludes political volunteering but I give money under my married name whenever I'm nervous and have recently added Ossoff and Lincoln Project to my list of donees. My husband wrote a lot of postcards to voters in Florida. Trying to be hopeful but boy, I was confident in 2016 until election night and past three and a quarter years have been even worse and more fascist than my fears then. Fingers crossed, all. And if this comes out right, there's a hell of a lot of damage to mend.
posted by bearwife at 1:03 AM on November 1, 2020 [10 favorites]
posted by bearwife at 1:03 AM on November 1, 2020 [10 favorites]
Dropped my ballot off at the Tokyo embassy last month. Checked the county website, saw my ballot had been received, and that it was deemed “good.” Lot of relief when I saw that.
posted by Ghidorah at 1:06 AM on November 1, 2020 [10 favorites]
posted by Ghidorah at 1:06 AM on November 1, 2020 [10 favorites]
Following to ask what a Canadian can do!
If you have some money to spare, donating to Pizza to the Polls is what I do (as someone who is neither a USA citizen nor living in the USA).
posted by Morfil Ffyrnig at 4:07 AM on November 1, 2020 [4 favorites]
If you have some money to spare, donating to Pizza to the Polls is what I do (as someone who is neither a USA citizen nor living in the USA).
posted by Morfil Ffyrnig at 4:07 AM on November 1, 2020 [4 favorites]
Voted by mail a month or so ago and didn’t feel like it was enough. Voting for Hillary I felt I was contributing to an avalanche, what would become a momentous moment. That... didn’t turn out as expected.
Because time zones we won’t be up to watch the results come in and I’ll own to having a tremendous amount of anxiety about the current President holding the office by hook or by crook. We both will. Daily it occurs to me that Trump is really really -really- bad for everything and everyone. He’s just manifestly wrong.
The sobering thing is that I don’t think his supporters are able to see that. That is, they take what they see from the various media of the right and don’t question it. At all. And maybe a lot of them don’t have the facility to question it - they don’t understand how something that sounds ‘reasonable’ can also be very very wrong. And that kind of freaks me out because Trump strikes me as ill-suited to the job as any random Schroeder off the street who has spent his life lying cheating and stealing.
But despair is a sin and a waste of time. I’ll cling to an optimistic view, the incumbent will lose and then spend the rest of his life consumed and crippled by lawsuits that, ultimately drive his entire family permanently from the spotlight and ideally into constrained circumstances. By which I mean fucking jail.
posted by From Bklyn at 4:14 AM on November 1, 2020 [7 favorites]
Because time zones we won’t be up to watch the results come in and I’ll own to having a tremendous amount of anxiety about the current President holding the office by hook or by crook. We both will. Daily it occurs to me that Trump is really really -really- bad for everything and everyone. He’s just manifestly wrong.
The sobering thing is that I don’t think his supporters are able to see that. That is, they take what they see from the various media of the right and don’t question it. At all. And maybe a lot of them don’t have the facility to question it - they don’t understand how something that sounds ‘reasonable’ can also be very very wrong. And that kind of freaks me out because Trump strikes me as ill-suited to the job as any random Schroeder off the street who has spent his life lying cheating and stealing.
But despair is a sin and a waste of time. I’ll cling to an optimistic view, the incumbent will lose and then spend the rest of his life consumed and crippled by lawsuits that, ultimately drive his entire family permanently from the spotlight and ideally into constrained circumstances. By which I mean fucking jail.
posted by From Bklyn at 4:14 AM on November 1, 2020 [7 favorites]
Making calls with the Biden national call crew and acting as a moderator for their slack channel, helping volunteers get started and cheering them on. We are making so many calls, the call tools keep filling up and breaking. We are in the final stretch!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 4:50 AM on November 1, 2020 [19 favorites]
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 4:50 AM on November 1, 2020 [19 favorites]
Text banking daily for two weeks now for Biden/Harris with the national text crew, the Texas Dems, and the Ohio Dems. (At last rough count, have sent 20k texts and had hundreds of conversations.) Call banking weekly, too - swing states with my union & my Congressional district with my town's Dems. Wrote postcards to voters in Georgia for Ossof and non-partisan letters with VoteFwd. It's also my first year as a poll worker. Yesterday at my early voting site, my machine recorded over 300 votes, dozens of those first-time voters.
Yeah, I'm unemployed. Yeah, I'm terrified. Yeah, I'm 100% channeling all of my fear, boredom, and panic into action for my own emotional benefit primarily. I mean, I believe in our democracy, and I'm a life-long voter, but I'm so active this cycle because it's a very effective way to self-soothe.
Detrimental to that, though? Last night my county's Board of Elections sent final guidance for Election Day pollworkers that laid out plainly how our only backstop to voters who are aggressive/violent is the cops. No tips for de-escalation or mention of the non-partisan resources that might be available. The Election staff I've worked with have been great, but they're a handful of folks and there are way too many poll sites for that will be staffed with volunteers. I feel unsupported, to say the least.
posted by minervous at 5:23 AM on November 1, 2020 [21 favorites]
Yeah, I'm unemployed. Yeah, I'm terrified. Yeah, I'm 100% channeling all of my fear, boredom, and panic into action for my own emotional benefit primarily. I mean, I believe in our democracy, and I'm a life-long voter, but I'm so active this cycle because it's a very effective way to self-soothe.
Detrimental to that, though? Last night my county's Board of Elections sent final guidance for Election Day pollworkers that laid out plainly how our only backstop to voters who are aggressive/violent is the cops. No tips for de-escalation or mention of the non-partisan resources that might be available. The Election staff I've worked with have been great, but they're a handful of folks and there are way too many poll sites for that will be staffed with volunteers. I feel unsupported, to say the least.
posted by minervous at 5:23 AM on November 1, 2020 [21 favorites]
Both of us voted in early October, but I haven't found a way to see if our ballots have been opened yet. I know we personally slid them into the box intended for them.
I drove about an hour west of Richmond on country roads yesterday and saw Biden-Harris signs everywhere. Virginia is expected to stay blue, but it was a nice change of pace from last weekend's voyage to the southeast, where Trump signs were everywhere.
I'm a sucker for socks, so I ordered a pair from the Biden store that should be here soon. Hopefully by Monday or Tuesday, unlike the Clinton merch I ordered four years ago that arrived long after the election.
I'm intrigued by Pizza for the Polls, so I'm off to check that out.
posted by emelenjr at 6:05 AM on November 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
I drove about an hour west of Richmond on country roads yesterday and saw Biden-Harris signs everywhere. Virginia is expected to stay blue, but it was a nice change of pace from last weekend's voyage to the southeast, where Trump signs were everywhere.
I'm a sucker for socks, so I ordered a pair from the Biden store that should be here soon. Hopefully by Monday or Tuesday, unlike the Clinton merch I ordered four years ago that arrived long after the election.
I'm intrigued by Pizza for the Polls, so I'm off to check that out.
posted by emelenjr at 6:05 AM on November 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
Dropped off our ballots at the dropbox which is literally next door to us back on October 9. Received and accepted the next day.
Signed up on Power To The Polls, but they didn't need poll workers in my city. This past week I signed up on Respect The Vote to attend a November 4 march if needed.
I've been making lots of small donations throughout the campaign season, mainly to the likely-flippable Senate campaigns but also to some House races here and there.
posted by briank at 6:12 AM on November 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
Signed up on Power To The Polls, but they didn't need poll workers in my city. This past week I signed up on Respect The Vote to attend a November 4 march if needed.
I've been making lots of small donations throughout the campaign season, mainly to the likely-flippable Senate campaigns but also to some House races here and there.
posted by briank at 6:12 AM on November 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
Husband said “we need something to binge watch Tuesday to avoid doom scrolling” - open to suggestions!!!
posted by ersatzkat at 6:20 AM on November 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by ersatzkat at 6:20 AM on November 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
In 2016 and 2018 pizza to the polls might have made sense. But the last thing I'd want to see in 2020 is long lines of people taking their masks off and eating pizza.
posted by aniola at 6:57 AM on November 1, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by aniola at 6:57 AM on November 1, 2020 [4 favorites]
I have taken all of next week off because I think I'm going to need it, one way or the other. I hope I don't wear out my F5 key.
posted by pracowity at 7:33 AM on November 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by pracowity at 7:33 AM on November 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
We early voted the first day early voting was available in our state. We've been pretty much gluten to 270towin.com, where NC remains a solid, indeterminate brown on every race but the governorship, please keep hanging in there Cooper.
Otherwise, we haven't done anything; I talked about poll working or phone banking and just... didn't. I really appreciate everyone who is working on those efforts, so very much. We're being kind when we get texted (several times a day, because swing state). Otherwise, we're mostly just laying lay; our best friend relocated to Arizona this fall and we're really worried about civil unrest in both places, so he's trying not to freak out at us and we're trying not to freak out at him and that's where a lot of our energy is going right now.
Watching the difference in the appeals re: voting that my wife and I are getting this year is interesting. Usually we get the same mailings/etc, but this year, they've been a lot more... targeted, for her. I'm mentally drafting an email to the state Democratic Party about how sending out materials telling Black folks to save us from the mess us white folks have created is really terrible, and one of the reasons we haven't volunteered with anyone. The worst was the night she got a text that just said "You votin, [government name]?"
"Not if you ask me like that."
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I'm just trying to get out the community to vote, it's really important to vote this year, we're just working on getting everyone out to vote."
"The community, eh? Which community is that?"
"Well, you know, I'm from the Black Church."
"My wife and I voted straight Democratic tickets the first day of early voting."
*radio silence*
I guess as soon as my wife said "wife"... :)
posted by joycehealy at 7:56 AM on November 1, 2020 [9 favorites]
Otherwise, we haven't done anything; I talked about poll working or phone banking and just... didn't. I really appreciate everyone who is working on those efforts, so very much. We're being kind when we get texted (several times a day, because swing state). Otherwise, we're mostly just laying lay; our best friend relocated to Arizona this fall and we're really worried about civil unrest in both places, so he's trying not to freak out at us and we're trying not to freak out at him and that's where a lot of our energy is going right now.
Watching the difference in the appeals re: voting that my wife and I are getting this year is interesting. Usually we get the same mailings/etc, but this year, they've been a lot more... targeted, for her. I'm mentally drafting an email to the state Democratic Party about how sending out materials telling Black folks to save us from the mess us white folks have created is really terrible, and one of the reasons we haven't volunteered with anyone. The worst was the night she got a text that just said "You votin, [government name]?"
"Not if you ask me like that."
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I'm just trying to get out the community to vote, it's really important to vote this year, we're just working on getting everyone out to vote."
"The community, eh? Which community is that?"
"Well, you know, I'm from the Black Church."
"My wife and I voted straight Democratic tickets the first day of early voting."
*radio silence*
I guess as soon as my wife said "wife"... :)
posted by joycehealy at 7:56 AM on November 1, 2020 [9 favorites]
I'm Canadian, so whatever. I have turned off the news for the week more or less. It's proving wiser than most things I've done lately.
posted by philip-random at 8:32 AM on November 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by philip-random at 8:32 AM on November 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
The kid and I are going to vote tomorrow because we're working the polls on Tuesday. Civic duty and all, but also I'm unemployed so the money helps, and mostly because it'll prevent me from obsessively reading about polls and politics all day.
posted by Ruki at 8:57 AM on November 1, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by Ruki at 8:57 AM on November 1, 2020 [5 favorites]
Voted when I got my ballot in the mail. Vermont mailed a ballot to every registered-to-vote Vermonter. We also have same-day registration so there may be people at the polls. We have this cool tool that shows how many ballots have been turned in by town. Mine's at 56%. I went in yesterday to help run the ballots through the Scantron but they were done by the time I showed up. I work the polls Tuesday. Even though I think they are taking all precautions (and our COVID numbers are low) I am opting to work the ballot drop box outside. Hoping it's above freezing. I am also ON the ballot running for Justice of the Peace for the 5th time. I expect to win. I (along with many other people) crabbed at Howard Dean's mean tweet about Gen Xers and he deleted it and apologized.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 9:08 AM on November 1, 2020 [7 favorites]
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 9:08 AM on November 1, 2020 [7 favorites]
Voted by mail over a month ago.
I am working the polls on Tuesday and my assigned poll site is one of the few zip codes in Brooklyn that went to Trump in 2016. I'm trying not to dwell on it because it's NY, but it's just my luck that I get to spend election day helping people vote for Trump.
posted by doublenelson at 9:16 AM on November 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
I am working the polls on Tuesday and my assigned poll site is one of the few zip codes in Brooklyn that went to Trump in 2016. I'm trying not to dwell on it because it's NY, but it's just my luck that I get to spend election day helping people vote for Trump.
posted by doublenelson at 9:16 AM on November 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
Voted and sent a bunch of money to this organization, which pays outstanding fines so the people owing them are eligible to vote again.
posted by JanetLand at 9:23 AM on November 1, 2020 [8 favorites]
posted by JanetLand at 9:23 AM on November 1, 2020 [8 favorites]
If it’s any consolation, doublenelson, please take heart in knowing that your professionalism will help assure many of those voters of the integrity of their local election process, even as the GOP is trying to instill doubt all over the country. You’re still making a difference, and you’re still doing a good thing.
posted by mochapickle at 9:25 AM on November 1, 2020 [12 favorites]
posted by mochapickle at 9:25 AM on November 1, 2020 [12 favorites]
Was feeling absolute despair about my Trump-supporting parents yesterday so I had a heart-to-heart with my mother that felt fruitless in the moment...but my sister followed up with a parental call a few hours later, and with our combined efforts, I'm relieved to report that our folks have decided not to vote in 2020.
posted by roger ackroyd at 9:47 AM on November 1, 2020 [29 favorites]
posted by roger ackroyd at 9:47 AM on November 1, 2020 [29 favorites]
I'm working the polls Tuesday, as I have every election since the 2018 primaries. Every time, my precinct has barely had enough poll workers, and then one or two never show or are utterly incompetent. The #1 reason I dread working the elections is because I never know if I'm going to have enough workers to let my precinct run smoothly, or if I'm going to have to spend half my day keeping Bill on task handing people their ballots because even the easiest possible job is too much for this dude, and there may be literally nobody else available to do it.
This year I have double the usual number of poll workers assigned to my precinct, all have been responsive and only one may have to drop out pending Covid testing results. I'm both thrilled, and kind of bitter that I've been scraping by with a skeleton crew all this time, but now all of a sudden everybody and their brother wants to be a poll worker. I just hope some of these first-timers stick with it, and not all revert back to letting other people run the elections once Covid and Trump are out of the equation.
posted by gueneverey at 10:10 AM on November 1, 2020 [9 favorites]
This year I have double the usual number of poll workers assigned to my precinct, all have been responsive and only one may have to drop out pending Covid testing results. I'm both thrilled, and kind of bitter that I've been scraping by with a skeleton crew all this time, but now all of a sudden everybody and their brother wants to be a poll worker. I just hope some of these first-timers stick with it, and not all revert back to letting other people run the elections once Covid and Trump are out of the equation.
posted by gueneverey at 10:10 AM on November 1, 2020 [9 favorites]
Smoking so much weed.
Beyond that, I feel I have done all I can right now and the situation is out of my hands. The scenarios I have been worried over and harping on about are starting to happen, so I will reiterate a lot of this briefly:
• Expect a red mirage event on election night. Worse, expect a blatantly faked red mirage event. A real one now looks unlikely given the historic early voting so far, but Republicans will mobilize to seize the narrative immediately. Maintaining control over that and making sure state officials are prepared for worst cases probably matters more than the actual vote count. Part of this is emphasizing that we have never had results on election night and insisting on fair counts. The media will be our enemy in this as the MO has been to signal-boost the most outrageous nonsense and frame everything as horserace politics. Journalism, though, is still helpful - Republicans' efforts and plans to dismantle US democracy have been well documented by multiple reliable sources. Point them out loudly and often.
• Expect the nightmare scenario. Counts dragging out, Republicans outright discarding/destroying/invalidating ballots and shenanigans with competing state or faithless electors. Prepare for mass shootings and domestic terrorism on and after Election Day. We're already seeing some and it will escalate. Prepare for the contested results - regardless of what they look like - to be handed to the SC who hand it to Republicans. Prepare for the worst scenarios and hope they won't come to pass but also
• Push back on and shut down American exceptionalism, "it can't happen here" and any minimizing of the risks. This is serious and many of the worst-cases have already happened. It is clear Republicans will try to dismantle US democracy in the coming months.
• Prepare for this to be a long process. Memorize and repeat the important dates here: Nov. 3, states appoint electors. Dec. 8, safe harbor deadline for EC, Dec. 14, electors vote, Jan. 6, vote count is finalized. Doesn't matter if this is civics 101 for you, Republicans will try to disrupt or twist the process itself to their ends.
• Talk to everyone you know about this stuff. Share and summarize things like the TIP report. Remind yourself and the people you know that this is not going to be instantly over on Nov. 4. I wish it was, too, but this is going to be long.
• There are a lot of good resources to check out in the anti-coup thread. Choose Democracy in particular breaks down a lot of this into quickly actionable info. Look into whether there is any organization for a general strike near you. Bear in mind that protests alone will likely not have much impact. This is going to be a long fight and the fascists could easily wait for the energy to fizzle out.
• Stay safe. Stay sane. Smoke 'em if you got 'em.
posted by Lonnrot at 10:16 AM on November 1, 2020 [32 favorites]
Beyond that, I feel I have done all I can right now and the situation is out of my hands. The scenarios I have been worried over and harping on about are starting to happen, so I will reiterate a lot of this briefly:
• Expect a red mirage event on election night. Worse, expect a blatantly faked red mirage event. A real one now looks unlikely given the historic early voting so far, but Republicans will mobilize to seize the narrative immediately. Maintaining control over that and making sure state officials are prepared for worst cases probably matters more than the actual vote count. Part of this is emphasizing that we have never had results on election night and insisting on fair counts. The media will be our enemy in this as the MO has been to signal-boost the most outrageous nonsense and frame everything as horserace politics. Journalism, though, is still helpful - Republicans' efforts and plans to dismantle US democracy have been well documented by multiple reliable sources. Point them out loudly and often.
• Expect the nightmare scenario. Counts dragging out, Republicans outright discarding/destroying/invalidating ballots and shenanigans with competing state or faithless electors. Prepare for mass shootings and domestic terrorism on and after Election Day. We're already seeing some and it will escalate. Prepare for the contested results - regardless of what they look like - to be handed to the SC who hand it to Republicans. Prepare for the worst scenarios and hope they won't come to pass but also
• Push back on and shut down American exceptionalism, "it can't happen here" and any minimizing of the risks. This is serious and many of the worst-cases have already happened. It is clear Republicans will try to dismantle US democracy in the coming months.
• Prepare for this to be a long process. Memorize and repeat the important dates here: Nov. 3, states appoint electors. Dec. 8, safe harbor deadline for EC, Dec. 14, electors vote, Jan. 6, vote count is finalized. Doesn't matter if this is civics 101 for you, Republicans will try to disrupt or twist the process itself to their ends.
• Talk to everyone you know about this stuff. Share and summarize things like the TIP report. Remind yourself and the people you know that this is not going to be instantly over on Nov. 4. I wish it was, too, but this is going to be long.
• There are a lot of good resources to check out in the anti-coup thread. Choose Democracy in particular breaks down a lot of this into quickly actionable info. Look into whether there is any organization for a general strike near you. Bear in mind that protests alone will likely not have much impact. This is going to be a long fight and the fascists could easily wait for the energy to fizzle out.
• Stay safe. Stay sane. Smoke 'em if you got 'em.
posted by Lonnrot at 10:16 AM on November 1, 2020 [32 favorites]
Both voters in this house in NY have voted early.
My workplace is a polling place so I’ve cancelled an outdoor class I teach there on Tuesday to make sure we don’t get in anyone’s way who needs to vote.
posted by sciencegeek at 10:35 AM on November 1, 2020 [3 favorites]
My workplace is a polling place so I’ve cancelled an outdoor class I teach there on Tuesday to make sure we don’t get in anyone’s way who needs to vote.
posted by sciencegeek at 10:35 AM on November 1, 2020 [3 favorites]
I'm Canadian, so my hands are more or less tied. It's like watching your neighbour's house burn without being able to do anything practical or active to help. I've used my freedom of speech to speak out online over the past four years, but I've no reason to believe that I've swayed even one person, sigh. I satirized my own sense of helplessness by posting on both Facebook and my Twitter account that if the U.S. does the right thing and votes that pig out of office on November 3rd, I will post my mother's brownie recipe online for all to enjoy. That won't change anyone's mind either, but it amused me and I'm sure anyone who actually proceeds to bake the brownies who will be very glad to get the recipe, because it is damn good.
Since I know full well that I will be stress eating the night of November 3rd, and will be really pissed off if don't have anything good to eat on hand and/or I have to tear myself away from my laptop to go make something, I laid in a mushroom and roasted garlic frozen pizza and made a pan of emotional support brownies for myself. They're biding their time in the freezer at present. Oh Tuesday, how I both await and dread you.
posted by orange swan at 10:44 AM on November 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
Since I know full well that I will be stress eating the night of November 3rd, and will be really pissed off if don't have anything good to eat on hand and/or I have to tear myself away from my laptop to go make something, I laid in a mushroom and roasted garlic frozen pizza and made a pan of emotional support brownies for myself. They're biding their time in the freezer at present. Oh Tuesday, how I both await and dread you.
posted by orange swan at 10:44 AM on November 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
Voted weeks ago, have been donating, moved my classes to asynchronous for Tuesday and encouraged my students to vote if possible. Trying to figure out what I'll do on the day of -- I signed up with my state to be a poll worker, but apparently so did everyone else and they fully staffed my county before getting to me.
posted by egregious theorem at 11:01 AM on November 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by egregious theorem at 11:01 AM on November 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
I'm signed up for calling this afternoon for the first time ever and I'm already regretting it.
Yesterday I got FIVE different texts from Democrats telling me to vote. I voted a couple of weeks ago and 5 texts day seems too much.
I don't want to pile more spam onto people's lives.
posted by small_ruminant at 11:08 AM on November 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
Yesterday I got FIVE different texts from Democrats telling me to vote. I voted a couple of weeks ago and 5 texts day seems too much.
I don't want to pile more spam onto people's lives.
posted by small_ruminant at 11:08 AM on November 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
Only 5? Some ppl in swing states report 5x that.
It's what happens when you don't have compulsory voting and a dysfunctional system...
From Maciej
Don't let spam deter you
Political spam is annoying, but it is also the quantum unit of political sacrifice, in that there's no smaller sacrifice you could be asked to make. Unsubscribe and endure.
---
Most dem/progressive textbanks I've volunteered with are completely oversubscribed with volunteers today. I went to 3 trainings today where they'd run out of texts. I've sent >25k texts across 8 states and 15 campaigns in the last week......
posted by lalochezia at 11:39 AM on November 1, 2020 [9 favorites]
Only 5? Some ppl in swing states report 5x that.
Well, that's horrifying. There's nothing worse than getting political spam when you're waiting with bated breath for test results or your kid/ mom who was supposed to be home 2 hours ago.
In other words, I disagree with Maciej that there's "no smaller sacrifice", especially when there's months of it.
posted by small_ruminant at 11:45 AM on November 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
Well, that's horrifying. There's nothing worse than getting political spam when you're waiting with bated breath for test results or your kid/ mom who was supposed to be home 2 hours ago.
In other words, I disagree with Maciej that there's "no smaller sacrifice", especially when there's months of it.
posted by small_ruminant at 11:45 AM on November 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
Well, I mean, four more years of Trump would be on my list of something worse.
My MIL broke her ankle yesterday and had to have surgery last night but I definitely didn't get snippy with the volunteers who texted me vote while we were waiting to hear the all-clear. I live in Ohio, so you can imagine that I'm getting several texts daily. I merely texted "stop" or "already voted straight Dem, stop texting" and each and every volunteer was gracious about it.
posted by cooker girl at 12:41 PM on November 1, 2020 [3 favorites]
My MIL broke her ankle yesterday and had to have surgery last night but I definitely didn't get snippy with the volunteers who texted me vote while we were waiting to hear the all-clear. I live in Ohio, so you can imagine that I'm getting several texts daily. I merely texted "stop" or "already voted straight Dem, stop texting" and each and every volunteer was gracious about it.
posted by cooker girl at 12:41 PM on November 1, 2020 [3 favorites]
I voted early last month. Made me feel really fucking good to vote against Susan Collins.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 1:07 PM on November 1, 2020 [18 favorites]
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 1:07 PM on November 1, 2020 [18 favorites]
Earlier today, I ran off a golf cart with a Trump flag full of unknown teens that had pulled over to steal the Biden signs from the yard. Birds were flipped; words were exchanged. It was funny at first -- and it wouldn't be the first time if the signs were stolen -- but I'm honestly shook up now. We haven't had any really hostile encounters in this neighborhood in the fifteen-odd years that my family has been here.
We were also TP'd last night, but we were not the only ones, so I can't be sure why. Still, they picked out the houses, so I suspect the reason. (We had candy last night and everything, although I hope ardently that the same kids who got the candy were not the ones who threw the rolls or rode in the golf cart.)
I am afraid they won't forget us this week, whatever happens. I wish my folks would let me board up the doors and windows.
posted by Countess Elena at 1:36 PM on November 1, 2020 [7 favorites]
We were also TP'd last night, but we were not the only ones, so I can't be sure why. Still, they picked out the houses, so I suspect the reason. (We had candy last night and everything, although I hope ardently that the same kids who got the candy were not the ones who threw the rolls or rode in the golf cart.)
I am afraid they won't forget us this week, whatever happens. I wish my folks would let me board up the doors and windows.
posted by Countess Elena at 1:36 PM on November 1, 2020 [7 favorites]
Voted on day one. Signed up for ballot curing, did the training, then found out there's none going on within 100 miles of me. Now I'm signed up for poll watching (training tomorrow) and I'm also working on getting a local politician booted out of office.
posted by saladin at 1:36 PM on November 1, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by saladin at 1:36 PM on November 1, 2020 [3 favorites]
Already voted and have been told my vote was counted. I donated money three times and I am not kidding when I say I have been getting more emails begging for money about every 15 minutes the last few days until I had to start marking them all as spam. Also half of them think my name is Patricia? I think I made it worse because one of my donations was to the Parks and Recreation Wisconsin fundraiser so now half of the spams think I live there.
I got texted to do phone banking and man, I just can't do that. I know it's dire, but I can't convince anyone into doing anything and phone is my worst method of doing anything anyway. I blocked that one.
Other than that: I am trying to chill out these last few days. I bought myself some yarn so I have entertainment. I have a lot of alcohol in the house. I have play rehearsal from right after work until 8 every night so I will presumably be occupied for at least some of Tuesday night and then start drinking every night after rehearsal, I guess. I don't know if planning to find something else to do Tuesday night after rehearsal ends is going to work out or not or if I will just cave into the despair afterwards.
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:48 PM on November 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
I got texted to do phone banking and man, I just can't do that. I know it's dire, but I can't convince anyone into doing anything and phone is my worst method of doing anything anyway. I blocked that one.
Other than that: I am trying to chill out these last few days. I bought myself some yarn so I have entertainment. I have a lot of alcohol in the house. I have play rehearsal from right after work until 8 every night so I will presumably be occupied for at least some of Tuesday night and then start drinking every night after rehearsal, I guess. I don't know if planning to find something else to do Tuesday night after rehearsal ends is going to work out or not or if I will just cave into the despair afterwards.
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:48 PM on November 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
I called for US Representative TJ Cox in Cal 21, a couple of times, and donated to other candidates, Kim Mangione, running against Kevin McCarthy, to Ballotpedia, and Voter's Edge for carrying my campaign stuff. I am locked in now until after Tuesday. Yep, I am all voted, and I made all the email solicitations spam. Then I started getting texts from a republican PR firm offering to sell me campaign texts. I just like what, so I started blocking texts a couple of days ago. All in all I was getting more than 100 contacts per day, that is annoying and nuts, counterproductive.
posted by Oyéah at 3:14 PM on November 1, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Oyéah at 3:14 PM on November 1, 2020 [3 favorites]
Voted the first day of early voting. Wrote ~600 postcards to voters (what a grind, especially since there's no way of knowing if they make any impact and lots of the candidates are mediocre at best, but a good way to pass time and support the USPS). Signed up to work the polls but never got contacted; there was something like 25,000 applicants for 11,000 county poll worker slots. On Election Day I'll run errands for a certain election judge as needed, text voters, and go to the skatepark if possible. Probably sit a few periods of zazen, too, and wear out my F5 key despite efforts to stay offline. I am going to try very, very hard to avoid alcohol no matter what the results look like Tuesday night.
posted by heteronym at 3:20 PM on November 1, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by heteronym at 3:20 PM on November 1, 2020 [3 favorites]
Stay safe, Countess Elena . It might be worth planning for just... quietly staying in for a week or more. Things are scary right now.
posted by Lonnrot at 3:20 PM on November 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Lonnrot at 3:20 PM on November 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
Got my ballot in the mail at the beginning of October and dropped it off at City Hall two days later.
Some jackanapes posted this sign just a few blocks from me and wow. So desperate.
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 3:51 PM on November 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
Some jackanapes posted this sign just a few blocks from me and wow. So desperate.
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 3:51 PM on November 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
I voted last week, Sunday, second day of early voting in NY. Wait was an hour and change. I also wrote a few dozen GOTV postcards to voters in South Carolina, and about 20 letters to voters in Georgia and Mississippi once I was done with that. I also donated a bunch of money total to various Senate campaigns and Dem organizations.
Also I did phone banking. I’m terrified of making phone calls to strangers. Like, paralyzing fear; after a particularly gnarly encounter with a lady taking my lunch order about 15 years ago, I won’t even make a phone call to order dinner. But still, I signed up to phone bank in Wisconsin because I'm more afraid of a second Trump term. Phone banking was awful, and I hated it, but I did it. It's very unlikely I'd do it again, but since I couldn't travel to Ohio this year, as I usually do for the Presidential elections, I phone banked instead. Next time, I'll do text banking if I can't travel for whatever reason.
posted by holborne at 4:03 PM on November 1, 2020 [7 favorites]
Also I did phone banking. I’m terrified of making phone calls to strangers. Like, paralyzing fear; after a particularly gnarly encounter with a lady taking my lunch order about 15 years ago, I won’t even make a phone call to order dinner. But still, I signed up to phone bank in Wisconsin because I'm more afraid of a second Trump term. Phone banking was awful, and I hated it, but I did it. It's very unlikely I'd do it again, but since I couldn't travel to Ohio this year, as I usually do for the Presidential elections, I phone banked instead. Next time, I'll do text banking if I can't travel for whatever reason.
posted by holborne at 4:03 PM on November 1, 2020 [7 favorites]
I've spent today running all over Eastern Iowa doing ballot cure. Here is a true fact: if you show up at people's houses to tell them that they messed up their ballot and they have to go vote a second time, there is a pretty good chance they will not believe you, because voting a second time sounds like a good way to get arrested. My goal was basically to get them to call the auditor's office tomorrow, because hopefully they will believe the auditor. I am very happy to be canvassing, though, because I really fucking hate phone banking.
I may be doing one last pass tomorrow, depending on how busy things look at work. And then I am done. I am trying to come up with some plan for Tuesday that involves literally not looking at the news or social media until 10:00 PM Central Time.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 4:09 PM on November 1, 2020 [16 favorites]
I may be doing one last pass tomorrow, depending on how busy things look at work. And then I am done. I am trying to come up with some plan for Tuesday that involves literally not looking at the news or social media until 10:00 PM Central Time.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 4:09 PM on November 1, 2020 [16 favorites]
Voted early, donated lots of money to worthy causes like FRRC, and wrote 200 postcards to Philadelphia voters to hopefully partially offset my parents’ probable Trump votes in Pennsyltucky. (Dad’s a lost cause, still working on/holding out modest hope for Mom.) Big thanks to all dedicating time & money to vote out the vile incumbent President, to support worthy downballot candidates, and to preserve the franchise.
posted by cheapskatebay at 4:52 PM on November 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by cheapskatebay at 4:52 PM on November 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
I have been lucky enough to have some down time the past two weeks (I'm self-employed), and I have been doing a bunch of texting, thanks to the fabulous people who answered my AskMe about how to do texting to get out the vote. I've been finding it really rewarding, and a lot of it is just clicking "Send" over and over to send initial texts, which means I can combine it with reading the latest news, so I feel like I'm contributing to GOTV while I waste time on the news. Heh.
Voted early, and was mildly annoyed (in a good way) at my mom for voting earlier than I did (her ballot reached her before mine reached me).
posted by kristi at 4:55 PM on November 1, 2020 [3 favorites]
Voted early, and was mildly annoyed (in a good way) at my mom for voting earlier than I did (her ballot reached her before mine reached me).
posted by kristi at 4:55 PM on November 1, 2020 [3 favorites]
I have voted, and I was honestly weirdly afraid I would die before I got the chance, despite beng a perfectly healthy middle aged person. My fear of death has returned to normal levels.
I drove through a little roadside Trump rally a couple weeks ago, and on my return trip a few minutes later, managed to get a song cued up on my phone, which I hooked up to my car stereo, and then rolled down the windows and turned the volume up to "earthquake", and rolled through the intersection cackling like a lunatic.
Mature? No. Making a difference? Also probably no. Satisfying? Oh yes, for the rest of the day I was happier than I've been since March.
Uhhhhh link is extremely NSFW.
posted by Adridne at 4:57 PM on November 1, 2020 [11 favorites]
I drove through a little roadside Trump rally a couple weeks ago, and on my return trip a few minutes later, managed to get a song cued up on my phone, which I hooked up to my car stereo, and then rolled down the windows and turned the volume up to "earthquake", and rolled through the intersection cackling like a lunatic.
Mature? No. Making a difference? Also probably no. Satisfying? Oh yes, for the rest of the day I was happier than I've been since March.
Uhhhhh link is extremely NSFW.
posted by Adridne at 4:57 PM on November 1, 2020 [11 favorites]
Early voted a couple weeks ago in SW Ohio. Phone banked several shifts and talked to over 100 voters in my county - it was mostly absentee ballot chasing and was overall a positive experience. My husband and I are working for the election protection efforts sponsored by the ACLU and League of Women Voters. I have no idea what to expect but I attended the ChooseDemocracy.us training and am trying to mentally prepare myself for potentially engaging in mass prolonged protest.
The scenario I'm most scared of is less court shenanigans or voter intimidation and more that the GOP will try to pull a coup and that we will collectively fail to sustain enough mass protest or a general strike or similar collective action to fight back against it. On the other hand, maybe the BLM protests this summer were a dress rehearsal, and look how many people protested this summer who never had before. That gives me something to hang on to.
posted by mostly vowels at 5:12 PM on November 1, 2020 [7 favorites]
The scenario I'm most scared of is less court shenanigans or voter intimidation and more that the GOP will try to pull a coup and that we will collectively fail to sustain enough mass protest or a general strike or similar collective action to fight back against it. On the other hand, maybe the BLM protests this summer were a dress rehearsal, and look how many people protested this summer who never had before. That gives me something to hang on to.
posted by mostly vowels at 5:12 PM on November 1, 2020 [7 favorites]
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I got caught in a fucking Trump train earlier today. That was a shitload of fun. Hundreds of cars full of screaming Nazi-loving trash, and of course the cops were nowhere to be found. I later learned that they were, actually, present, but they were apparently busy giving the MAGA scum literal thumbs-up.
posted by heteronym at 5:15 PM on November 1, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by heteronym at 5:15 PM on November 1, 2020 [5 favorites]
I voted early, and shared info on local online communities from the state board of elections about how to register and vote even if you don’t have a driver’s license.
See, I live in an area with tons of new transplants. When you Google how to vote here, you mostly get info about registering through the Department of Motor Vehicles website, which requires you to have a driver’s license so that you’re already “in their system.” But due to COVID, appointments to get driver’s licenses haven’t been available until after the election, for anyone who moved here in September or later. So I’d seen a lot of new residents sadly stating that they wouldn’t get to vote. That was totally untrue — as long as you moved here at least 30 days before the election and are a US citizen over 18 not currently serving a felony sentence, you can register and vote. No driver’s license needed. You just had to mail in a paper application, or register in person at an early voting site. So I made posts sharing how to do it.
I was very happy to see many people come back later to report that because of that information, they had gotten to vote!
posted by snowmentality at 5:55 PM on November 1, 2020 [19 favorites]
See, I live in an area with tons of new transplants. When you Google how to vote here, you mostly get info about registering through the Department of Motor Vehicles website, which requires you to have a driver’s license so that you’re already “in their system.” But due to COVID, appointments to get driver’s licenses haven’t been available until after the election, for anyone who moved here in September or later. So I’d seen a lot of new residents sadly stating that they wouldn’t get to vote. That was totally untrue — as long as you moved here at least 30 days before the election and are a US citizen over 18 not currently serving a felony sentence, you can register and vote. No driver’s license needed. You just had to mail in a paper application, or register in person at an early voting site. So I made posts sharing how to do it.
I was very happy to see many people come back later to report that because of that information, they had gotten to vote!
posted by snowmentality at 5:55 PM on November 1, 2020 [19 favorites]
I am taking a vacation day on election day and will vote in person (masked and gloved). My polling place is a short walk away, and is historically well staffed and organized. There may be a line, but it is unlikely to be long.
posted by coppertop at 6:38 PM on November 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by coppertop at 6:38 PM on November 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
Dropped off my ballot in a former K-mart parking lot that's gotten a glow up these past few months, since it's also working as a temporary post office and the K-mart is now covered in murals (it also has taco trucks, but it's always had taco trucks).
Have been doing ballot chasing by text. Sort of wish that I've been doing more, but I switched jobs this summer and have only started catching up now. I hate phones, but might try phone banking next time - apparently people tend to be especially nasty over text, in a way they aren't when they're confronted with a real human voice. Which man, its so much easier to ignore the texts than the phone calls.
(there was a point a few weeks ago when my husband got into a car accident and I was waiting for the insurance to call me back where I did have to take all of the random calls my phone has been getting - I just told them the situation, told them I didn't have time, and that was that. It wasn't fun, but compared to having to beg randos for our lives because some people's votes count more than others, it's small potatoes)
posted by dinty_moore at 8:01 PM on November 1, 2020 [4 favorites]
Have been doing ballot chasing by text. Sort of wish that I've been doing more, but I switched jobs this summer and have only started catching up now. I hate phones, but might try phone banking next time - apparently people tend to be especially nasty over text, in a way they aren't when they're confronted with a real human voice. Which man, its so much easier to ignore the texts than the phone calls.
(there was a point a few weeks ago when my husband got into a car accident and I was waiting for the insurance to call me back where I did have to take all of the random calls my phone has been getting - I just told them the situation, told them I didn't have time, and that was that. It wasn't fun, but compared to having to beg randos for our lives because some people's votes count more than others, it's small potatoes)
posted by dinty_moore at 8:01 PM on November 1, 2020 [4 favorites]
(Also Mr. Dinty is fine, at the end of the day he just bruised his shin, the car was totalled but we were able to replace it with a newer model of the same car - it was a shitty thing to have to deal with and we're out some money, but we also have more pressing problems)
posted by dinty_moore at 8:08 PM on November 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by dinty_moore at 8:08 PM on November 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
{TW: reference to sexual assault] Voted early by mail and spent a lot more time than usual studying the records of the judicial candidates... there were some pretty shockingly awful ones. (Just off the top of my head, one judge threatened a rape victim with contempt of court if she would not watch a video of her assault.) IIRC, this judge received "qualified" ratings from the various bar associations.
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 8:42 PM on November 1, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 8:42 PM on November 1, 2020 [3 favorites]
Pennsylvania voter. I've donated to senate races (a couple of bucks towards candidates in close races) and will be voting in-person on election day. (I live in the hinterlands, not an urban voter.)
I expect that the nice ladies in Emmaville will ensure that my vote is counted, same as they do every other election. When the dust settles, the total for my county will likely exceed 75% votes for the incumbent president. He got 83.47% of the vote in 2016 but I have seen more Biden/Harris signs this go-round than I did Hillary signs last time and I think Biden will get a higher percentage of the vote than Hillary did.
Overall, I am hopeful for a high turnout and the prospect of change but worried about efforts to disqualify valid ballots, skew the results, or muddy the waters. *sigh*
posted by which_chick at 8:59 PM on November 1, 2020 [3 favorites]
I expect that the nice ladies in Emmaville will ensure that my vote is counted, same as they do every other election. When the dust settles, the total for my county will likely exceed 75% votes for the incumbent president. He got 83.47% of the vote in 2016 but I have seen more Biden/Harris signs this go-round than I did Hillary signs last time and I think Biden will get a higher percentage of the vote than Hillary did.
Overall, I am hopeful for a high turnout and the prospect of change but worried about efforts to disqualify valid ballots, skew the results, or muddy the waters. *sigh*
posted by which_chick at 8:59 PM on November 1, 2020 [3 favorites]
Voted by"mail" weeks ago (official board of elections dropbox, not USPS). Kept up the drumbeat of accurate voting information on social media: "You can early vote NOW! Find your early voting centers here (BOE website). You can register to vote during in-person early and Election Day voting! Find what documents you need here (BOE website). You can check the status of your mail in ballot here (BOE website). Drop off your mail in ballot in an official dropbox. Find the dropbox locations here (BOE website)."
Looking to make some Count The Votes! yard signs, protest signs and tshirts. Anyone have any clever ideas? I am flat out of clever.
posted by jointhedance at 3:48 AM on November 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
Looking to make some Count The Votes! yard signs, protest signs and tshirts. Anyone have any clever ideas? I am flat out of clever.
posted by jointhedance at 3:48 AM on November 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
Looking to make some Count The Votes! yard signs, protest signs and tshirts. Anyone have any clever ideas?
"It ain't over 'til the fat mailbag is empty"?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:00 AM on November 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
"It ain't over 'til the fat mailbag is empty"?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:00 AM on November 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
A fascinating thing that happened last week was that I was in a meeting with my boss and a couple of other people, and my boss *went off* about politics. My boss is a nice, don't-talk-about-politics-or-religion type Midwestern lady who grew up on a farm and is active in her church and whatnot, and I didn't think she would be a Trump supporter, but I thought she might be one of those people who just wishes everyone would be nicer about our political differences because both sides have good points. And nope. She's not that. She went off on a completely intemperate five-minute rant about how everyone who supports Trump is either stupid or evil or both and we're going to have to do anything necessary to keep them from stealing the election. So anyway, now I feel a little bit better about my prospects for not losing my job in the event that we have to have a general strike, because I'm pretty sure that my boss is on board for a general strike. (Of course, there are people over her, and ultimately that includes the all-Republican state government, but I think that's a risk I'm willing to live with.)
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 5:52 AM on November 2, 2020 [14 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 5:52 AM on November 2, 2020 [14 favorites]
I'm in CT and have been textbanking with the DNC's voter assistance team, which assists people with issues registering and voting, whether by mail or in person. It has not been the firehose that I was expecting it to be, which might be a good thing insofar as it means people are voting without trouble, or it might be a bad thing insofar as it means people don't care about their vote. I'm inclined to think it's the former, given what we've seen reported about early voting lines, and given how many people do reach out asking what they can do if their vote-by-mail ballot isn't showing up as received on whatever tracker their state or locality has set up. People are motivated to vote and are motivated to have their votes counted.
This morning our family did a lesson on elections for the kids. Duck beat Farmer Brown 2-1 with one undecided voter, and then we showed the kids some clips of Trump and Biden making speeches. The kids (5 and 3 yo) said that they thought Biden seemed kinder and like he cared about people more, and our house went 3-0 for Biden/Harris with one undecided voter. In both cases the undecided voter was more interested in pretending to be a cat than in voting.
I did not put in for an absentee ballot this year, and I will be in line first thing tomorrow morning at 6:30. I don't know whether I want to wait up and watch the results come in; it makes sense to me to see how Florida, Pennsylvania, and Michigan break, but of course the full counts will not likely be completed tomorrow.
This weekend I was buying beer to drink tomorrow night if I DO watch the results, and it occurred to me that it would be sort of bleakly funny to have a Russian Imperial Stout on hand in case the night broke a certain way, but ... I just couldn't.
posted by gauche at 6:08 AM on November 2, 2020 [6 favorites]
This morning our family did a lesson on elections for the kids. Duck beat Farmer Brown 2-1 with one undecided voter, and then we showed the kids some clips of Trump and Biden making speeches. The kids (5 and 3 yo) said that they thought Biden seemed kinder and like he cared about people more, and our house went 3-0 for Biden/Harris with one undecided voter. In both cases the undecided voter was more interested in pretending to be a cat than in voting.
I did not put in for an absentee ballot this year, and I will be in line first thing tomorrow morning at 6:30. I don't know whether I want to wait up and watch the results come in; it makes sense to me to see how Florida, Pennsylvania, and Michigan break, but of course the full counts will not likely be completed tomorrow.
This weekend I was buying beer to drink tomorrow night if I DO watch the results, and it occurred to me that it would be sort of bleakly funny to have a Russian Imperial Stout on hand in case the night broke a certain way, but ... I just couldn't.
posted by gauche at 6:08 AM on November 2, 2020 [6 favorites]
I went for a walk this morning with a neighbor who is a poll worker here in Baltimore. He worked four consecutive days last week, Monday through Thursday, from 6 am to 10 pm. Very brief breaks for the workers during those 16-hour shifts. Lines to vote were never longer than 2 hours, but never shorter than 30 minutes. No issues with people complying with mask and social distancing mandates. (Poll workers in another Maryland county were not so lucky, but at least the judge seems to have made a smart decision with respect to the lawsuit filed by those would-be-maskless voters.) The early in-person voters skewed older than he expected, with many in their 70s and 80s, but there were also many first-time voters, the majority of whom were in their 20s and 30s. He anticipates another 16-hour day on Election Day tomorrow, perhaps even longer to accommodate those expected to be in line at 8 pm. I thought his experience was interesting and worth sharing, as it reflects what seems to be the enormous interest in voting reflected in this thread and in news coverage nationwide.
I'm grateful for his service and my next donation (probably to an organization working to combat frivolous election lawsuits like the one linked above, and/or to an organization working to ensure access to the polls tomorrow) will be made in his honor.
posted by cheapskatebay at 7:01 AM on November 2, 2020 [2 favorites]
I'm grateful for his service and my next donation (probably to an organization working to combat frivolous election lawsuits like the one linked above, and/or to an organization working to ensure access to the polls tomorrow) will be made in his honor.
posted by cheapskatebay at 7:01 AM on November 2, 2020 [2 favorites]
I am waiting anxiously for the MetaFilter voting day thread to open so I can hang out there in between crying fits. (Voted already).
posted by tiny frying pan at 7:15 AM on November 2, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by tiny frying pan at 7:15 AM on November 2, 2020 [3 favorites]
I am waiting anxiously for the MetaFilter voting day thread to open so I can hang out there in between crying fits.
Probably this. (But I'll be at work. I don't see getting any work done.) I don't think it's a good idea to sit in that thread all day but probably better than Facebook.(?) I suspect it will be a catalog of all the horrifying people and events at various polling locations throughout the day. Or maybe there will be lots of good news! HAHAHAH, FUCKALLOFTHIS.
I'd like to think I would be brave enough to go somewhere voter intimidation is expected, but I live in a Blue state and don't expect that anywhere close. I have sent more money than I could afford to various races in hopes of helping.
(I voted early about 10 days ago).
posted by Glinn at 7:36 AM on November 2, 2020 [2 favorites]
Probably this. (But I'll be at work. I don't see getting any work done.) I don't think it's a good idea to sit in that thread all day but probably better than Facebook.(?) I suspect it will be a catalog of all the horrifying people and events at various polling locations throughout the day. Or maybe there will be lots of good news! HAHAHAH, FUCKALLOFTHIS.
I'd like to think I would be brave enough to go somewhere voter intimidation is expected, but I live in a Blue state and don't expect that anywhere close. I have sent more money than I could afford to various races in hopes of helping.
(I voted early about 10 days ago).
posted by Glinn at 7:36 AM on November 2, 2020 [2 favorites]
I am off work because I work for the state. And this is THE only safe space on the internet for me. I am worried enough about civil unrest and general murderous fuckery out there that I plan to stay inside my apartment for the next two days.
posted by tiny frying pan at 7:39 AM on November 2, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by tiny frying pan at 7:39 AM on November 2, 2020 [2 favorites]
Ohio Dem GOTV textbanking - Thursday night, 2 shifts Saturday, another in about an hour.
Weather's supposed to be pretty good in Ohio tomorrow, high 50's and sunny, so hopefully that'll boost turnout.
posted by soundguy99 at 7:51 AM on November 2, 2020 [2 favorites]
Weather's supposed to be pretty good in Ohio tomorrow, high 50's and sunny, so hopefully that'll boost turnout.
posted by soundguy99 at 7:51 AM on November 2, 2020 [2 favorites]
Voted last week, I have no spoons for anything else.
Currently reading about the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution to make myself feel better. I wish I were joking.
posted by msali at 8:31 AM on November 2, 2020 [6 favorites]
Currently reading about the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution to make myself feel better. I wish I were joking.
posted by msali at 8:31 AM on November 2, 2020 [6 favorites]
My dad signed up as a poll worker. He’s been working through all of early voting and will be working tomorrow. He’s already defused a few angry, confrontational people by calmly explaining ballot security procedures. (“How do I know you people aren’t going to just go back and change all our votes you don’t like??” “Well, once you put your ballot in the tabulator, it’s securely locked up and can’t be unlocked until Election Day with lots of witnesses present,” etc.) They want to provoke a defensive reaction, and they get confused when a retired senior software developer (my dad) goes into full “diplomatically manage angry client” mode.
I’m hoping that tomorrow, he doesn’t encounter anything more dangerous than pissy words.
posted by snowmentality at 8:43 AM on November 2, 2020 [12 favorites]
I’m hoping that tomorrow, he doesn’t encounter anything more dangerous than pissy words.
posted by snowmentality at 8:43 AM on November 2, 2020 [12 favorites]
I am waiting anxiously for the MetaFilter voting day thread to open so I can hang out there in between crying fits.
Honestly, today I realized that my being preoccupied with a broken knee and the ensuing hassles has been probably saving my sanity the past month. I may be watching the news a lot too, but I'll have to be taking enforced breaks to preplan "okay how am I going to maneuver getting myself on out of bed and onto my crutches to go down the hall to the bathroom THIS time".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:49 AM on November 2, 2020
Honestly, today I realized that my being preoccupied with a broken knee and the ensuing hassles has been probably saving my sanity the past month. I may be watching the news a lot too, but I'll have to be taking enforced breaks to preplan "okay how am I going to maneuver getting myself on out of bed and onto my crutches to go down the hall to the bathroom THIS time".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:49 AM on November 2, 2020
I'm voting tomorrow. My depression has been kicking my ass hard enough I couldn't get the energy to early vote, but I'll stand in line tomorrow as long as it takes.
posted by Mouse Army at 9:09 AM on November 2, 2020 [11 favorites]
posted by Mouse Army at 9:09 AM on November 2, 2020 [11 favorites]
I am fortunate enough to have some cash that I can give, so I have been giving it.
Also, I have been phone banking a fair amount. Here is what I have learned:
posted by Going To Maine at 9:09 AM on November 2, 2020 [11 favorites]
Also, I have been phone banking a fair amount. Here is what I have learned:
- The vast majority of calls are quick hangups, and that’s just fine.
- A tiny number of calls are answered by people who are vexed at being called so many times, and that’s fine too.
- An even tinier number of calls are answered by angry people and jerks, but they are powerless because you are on a phone and behind an anonymous number. (No QAnon folks yet, but I’ve got a two hour shift tonight!) It can be a little frustrating sometimes, but is mostly okay.
- A decent number of people are happy to build spirit with you and reiterate enthusiasm - they just want to talk to another Biden voter, y’know? - or to get off the phone as politely and quickly as possible. That number has gone down a smidge, presumably as they have drowned in calls.
- A small number of people have sincere questions about their voting situations, and that’s what the job is about. (The people who had no idea what had happened to their father’s absentee ballot from a different state, the person who needed a walk through of the ballot questions, the people who don’t know where their polling places are.
- A tiny number have people have a desperate need to talk because of election fears, because they have hardcore voting problems, or because their life situation just feels very dire. They need to talk in a way that you, a mere volunteer, are not qualified to do because what they actually need is a therapist and all you can do is provide voting information and be a presence at the end of a phone line for them. But man, those calls do stick with you. (The woman whose parents had been lost to QAnon, the woman who wants me to call back on election day to make sure she votes because her life is full of other challenges, the guy who was very definitely not a Biden voter but was also obviously old and isolated and just desperate to talk to someone about anything.)
- Because you generally have a decent amount time between calls, you can do any small chore or bit of idleness that doesn’t take much real thought while banking - something I’m not sure I could get away with if we weren’t all remote right now.
- There are a lot of decorations to purchase for your home in Hades and I am nowhere near getting all of them yet.
posted by Going To Maine at 9:09 AM on November 2, 2020 [11 favorites]
Those 100K+ ballots in TX are staying in, so far, which gives me a measure of hope, though I know many judges in many other challenges will be worse. Making plans with friends to have skype calls tomorrow, because we know there's unlikely to be a result, but we will be watching anxiously. 538 moved the needle from Biden is favored to win the election to Biden is clearly favored to win the election briefly, now it's back to just favored and that nearly gave me hives.
I wrote 100+ letters for VoteForward. 8 years ago, I had a housemate, and helped her register and vote for Obama; got a couple Please Vote postcards for her. Dems should have better data, which is annoying, still, nice.
I have seen more people positively engaged in the election than ever before, more people registering, more people voting. That's the story that should be getting reported, not the jerkholes with pickup trucks and Trump banners; the many, many Americans who are stepping up to vote, despite massive efforts to disenfranchise them, long lines, disinformation, fear of violence. I am so proud of America. And I am prepared to march, protest, strike, whatever it takes to protect the result.
posted by theora55 at 9:37 AM on November 2, 2020 [4 favorites]
I wrote 100+ letters for VoteForward. 8 years ago, I had a housemate, and helped her register and vote for Obama; got a couple Please Vote postcards for her. Dems should have better data, which is annoying, still, nice.
I have seen more people positively engaged in the election than ever before, more people registering, more people voting. That's the story that should be getting reported, not the jerkholes with pickup trucks and Trump banners; the many, many Americans who are stepping up to vote, despite massive efforts to disenfranchise them, long lines, disinformation, fear of violence. I am so proud of America. And I am prepared to march, protest, strike, whatever it takes to protect the result.
posted by theora55 at 9:37 AM on November 2, 2020 [4 favorites]
So I know this is going to upset some people but I'm not doing anything. I'm going to have a busy day at work in my basement and then make dinner and maybe watch TV.
I'm a green cardholder living in the US and I guess I'll stay up late enough to see if I need to call my real estate agent Wednesday and make plans to pack my home and leave next summer.
I appreciate all the individual effort people are making to fix the extremely broken American election system. Thanks everyone.
posted by GuyZero at 10:23 AM on November 2, 2020 [7 favorites]
I'm a green cardholder living in the US and I guess I'll stay up late enough to see if I need to call my real estate agent Wednesday and make plans to pack my home and leave next summer.
I appreciate all the individual effort people are making to fix the extremely broken American election system. Thanks everyone.
posted by GuyZero at 10:23 AM on November 2, 2020 [7 favorites]
Since the beginning of September I've been getting a couple of texts a day from various orgs wanting me to come help text and make calls, but I ... just don't have the spoons. They slowed down this past week, presumably because they have enough volunteers, by what I'm reading here. Thank you, by the way, for doing that work.
I always vote in person, and usually go with my Dad, except much like everything else this year, we're staying safer apart. He voted in person the first day it was open, and I finally got my shit together and dropped off my ballot yesterday. It was my first time not going to my sleepy little neighborhood polling place and seeing the same volunteers and chatting about the (usually low) turnout. My dad said there was a line to drop off, and a line to vote. Not very long, but a line all the same. That's encouraging news, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up.
posted by ApathyGirl at 10:34 AM on November 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
I always vote in person, and usually go with my Dad, except much like everything else this year, we're staying safer apart. He voted in person the first day it was open, and I finally got my shit together and dropped off my ballot yesterday. It was my first time not going to my sleepy little neighborhood polling place and seeing the same volunteers and chatting about the (usually low) turnout. My dad said there was a line to drop off, and a line to vote. Not very long, but a line all the same. That's encouraging news, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up.
posted by ApathyGirl at 10:34 AM on November 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
I'm not in the US, so all I can do is worry. And I'm doing plenty of that. So much, in fact, that if you want to stop worrying so much, and can manage to do so... that'd be fine. I've got you covered.
posted by Too-Ticky at 10:44 AM on November 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Too-Ticky at 10:44 AM on November 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
I'm Canadian, so not much I can do, but sit here and watch. Fingers crossed for the result, hoping the day is safe and calm, wishing you all the best.
posted by nubs at 10:45 AM on November 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by nubs at 10:45 AM on November 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
I've been phone banking for weeks for Biden and Yes on Question 2 (Ranked Choice Voting) here in MA, with a dollop of targeted get-out-the-vote campaigns for some other organizations. I'll be doing some more tonight and on my break tomorrow.
Meanwhile, my own mail-in ballot request was in limbo forever. I finally reviewed what I sent, realized I made an error, and re-sent the request. It's now all set and ready to be counted!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone for all your efforts, especially poll workers. <3
posted by prewar lemonade at 10:48 AM on November 2, 2020 [2 favorites]
Meanwhile, my own mail-in ballot request was in limbo forever. I finally reviewed what I sent, realized I made an error, and re-sent the request. It's now all set and ready to be counted!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone for all your efforts, especially poll workers. <3
posted by prewar lemonade at 10:48 AM on November 2, 2020 [2 favorites]
Puking and crying.
(Pour one out for puke & cry)
posted by tzikeh at 10:49 AM on November 2, 2020 [6 favorites]
(Pour one out for puke & cry)
posted by tzikeh at 10:49 AM on November 2, 2020 [6 favorites]
I dropped my ballot at an early voting site here in MN a few weeks ago. I was doing postcards to voters and some limited phone banking, but couldn't deal with the waiting on the calls. Then I tried to sign up to text bank but every time I tried to show up to a training they were already full.
What I've been doing since then is working on artwork - some RBG and anti-racist stuff. I don't know what I'm doing tomorrow night, I was hoping to watch the new Tremors with a friend but they're volunteering as a poll worker so we'll have to do it another time. My best-ever election night activity was the year I went to see Social Distortion play in 2012 - going to a show is the perfect distraction, but obviously this year that's not possible, so I've got to find something else.
posted by bile and syntax at 11:03 AM on November 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
What I've been doing since then is working on artwork - some RBG and anti-racist stuff. I don't know what I'm doing tomorrow night, I was hoping to watch the new Tremors with a friend but they're volunteering as a poll worker so we'll have to do it another time. My best-ever election night activity was the year I went to see Social Distortion play in 2012 - going to a show is the perfect distraction, but obviously this year that's not possible, so I've got to find something else.
posted by bile and syntax at 11:03 AM on November 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
voted last week. first day of maryland in-person early voting. line was an hour long, stretching well beyond the no-electioneering limit; the only significant electioneering i witnessed pertained to a local school board zoning issue, and it was half-graceless, the rep of one side slandering the rep of the other side and then following them around to argue & prod (i told that party they were making a poor impression; that party didn't seem to care). it was as cheapskatebay says above: mostly persons of advanced years or twenty-somethings. and me. kinda chaotic inside the polling room but charged with the positive energy of engaged people happy to be doing what they're doing (this energy was not evident from the line, which was quiet, each person/pod totally contained in their own six-foot radius; it was really hard to remember not to step right up behind the people in front of me as they advanced, notwithstanding the blocking tape on the floor).
i came out more anxious than i went in. not because i was exposed to anything troubling -- i think just because i had been looking forward to casting my vote for so long and, that accomplished, there's nothing but the wait. i have been taking breaks from doomscrolling to restring guitar and obsessively play scales. would be chainsmoking spliffs if i had the wherewithal, but, alas, the pandemic has messed up my wonted supply-line for wherewithal. (and i, a non-drinker in favor of that other intoxicant, finished the tequila i kept on hand for guests during the debates).
posted by 20 year lurk at 11:52 AM on November 2, 2020 [3 favorites]
i came out more anxious than i went in. not because i was exposed to anything troubling -- i think just because i had been looking forward to casting my vote for so long and, that accomplished, there's nothing but the wait. i have been taking breaks from doomscrolling to restring guitar and obsessively play scales. would be chainsmoking spliffs if i had the wherewithal, but, alas, the pandemic has messed up my wonted supply-line for wherewithal. (and i, a non-drinker in favor of that other intoxicant, finished the tequila i kept on hand for guests during the debates).
posted by 20 year lurk at 11:52 AM on November 2, 2020 [3 favorites]
Voted by mail in early October, put it in a drop box and it was marked received. Have been helping people find locations of drop boxes which is surprisingly not as easy as you might think.
I’m considering spending tomorrow re-reading Casey McQuiston’s Red, White, and Royal Blue largely for escapism, but also to manifest blue Texas.
posted by brook horse at 12:00 PM on November 2, 2020 [4 favorites]
I’m considering spending tomorrow re-reading Casey McQuiston’s Red, White, and Royal Blue largely for escapism, but also to manifest blue Texas.
posted by brook horse at 12:00 PM on November 2, 2020 [4 favorites]
Twitter is telling me that the Fed Judge is NOT going to throw out those Tx Harris County drive through votes, but not official confirm link yet.
posted by emjaybee at 12:32 PM on November 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by emjaybee at 12:32 PM on November 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
Twitter is telling me that the Fed Judge is NOT going to throw out those Tx Harris County drive through votes, but not official confirm link yet.
The judge won't throw out the drive-through votes so that the GOP can take their complaint to SCOTUS, who will.
posted by tzikeh at 12:36 PM on November 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
The judge won't throw out the drive-through votes so that the GOP can take their complaint to SCOTUS, who will.
posted by tzikeh at 12:36 PM on November 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
Voted in-person during the first week of our early voting. I actually had been granted a mail-in ballot (as had my roommate) when we applied for them early this summer for COVID reasons. Both of us handed the mail-in ballots in and voted in person instead, because we thought that was more likely to be counted. In my little Discord server of local friends, there is a politics room, and folks keep trickling in--"I voted," "I voted," "I voted"--as early voting has moved on. I've made some plans to attend a local neighbourhood rally if necessary on Wednesday and am reporting on stuff from the DSA as I go, and I worked up a quick round of "here's who I'm going with" on the downballots with why so that local friends and chosen-family could use the tips without worrying too much back when voting started.
I'm too fucking tired to do too much this round otherwise, though. I've just gnawed my way through (most?) of an exhausting PhD after a grueling summer, am held together by twigs and hope, and am trying to finish getting everything submitted on time while I try to manage an unpredictable boss with a really unrealistic idea about how to handle timelines.
Good luck to all of you voting tomorrow.
posted by sciatrix at 12:44 PM on November 2, 2020 [3 favorites]
I'm too fucking tired to do too much this round otherwise, though. I've just gnawed my way through (most?) of an exhausting PhD after a grueling summer, am held together by twigs and hope, and am trying to finish getting everything submitted on time while I try to manage an unpredictable boss with a really unrealistic idea about how to handle timelines.
Good luck to all of you voting tomorrow.
posted by sciatrix at 12:44 PM on November 2, 2020 [3 favorites]
Just a quick word to everyone who hasn't had the energy or time to do more this year: my experience with text banking has been that a LOT of the time they are blasting through texts so fast that people keep showing up to help out and there's nothing for them to do. There are a LOT of people who are involved this year, so if this is a time when you just can't, please know that the work seems to be getting done, so please don't feel bad.
To you - and to everyone here - I am proud of you for taking care of yourself, and for taking care of each other.
posted by kristi at 1:23 PM on November 2, 2020 [9 favorites]
To you - and to everyone here - I am proud of you for taking care of yourself, and for taking care of each other.
posted by kristi at 1:23 PM on November 2, 2020 [9 favorites]
I voted early here in NJ, I have been sending money to Biden's campaign and to local campaigns, and I have textbanked, although most of the time by the time I'm done with my job, the lists are gone. I was fortunate to grab a list of 300 just now.
Textbanking is fun, though I'll always feel uncomfortable doing it because I am interrupting people's day.
posted by kimberussell at 1:54 PM on November 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
Textbanking is fun, though I'll always feel uncomfortable doing it because I am interrupting people's day.
posted by kimberussell at 1:54 PM on November 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
I voted early in Pennsylvania, volunteered with Indivisible Philly to help organize writing 510,000 (!) postcards to Philadelphia Dems, did a lit drop shift last night and tomorrow ... this is my favorite ... I'm helping 215 People's Alliance feed people waiting in line to vote in Philly. Chefs, restaurants and food trucks are being deployed to 16 polling locations and I'll be helping hand out the food. My location will have a taco truck!
I'm also also all set to join Protect the Results to protest as necessary starting on Wednesday.
posted by mcduff at 2:40 PM on November 2, 2020 [8 favorites]
I'm also also all set to join Protect the Results to protest as necessary starting on Wednesday.
posted by mcduff at 2:40 PM on November 2, 2020 [8 favorites]
I posted this in the wrong thread, so I'm copying it here.
The three people ahead of us in line today voted for Trump. I had to listen to their whole conversation about how they hate him, but they’re voting for policies not the person. This in one of the most Democratic heavy states in the country. It’s also the most Catholic state, so policy often means anti-abortion. And just, fuck you very much for hanging your “pro-life” hat on Donald Trump. What is the fucking point of forcing birth into, gestures broadly, all this? The world is figuratively and literally on fire, but gotta keep those embryonic cells safe. Everyone and everything else can just burn, I guess.
Anyway, it was super cold and windy in line, so I used my simmering rage to keep warm.
posted by Ruki at 4:19 PM on November 2, 2020 [8 favorites]
The three people ahead of us in line today voted for Trump. I had to listen to their whole conversation about how they hate him, but they’re voting for policies not the person. This in one of the most Democratic heavy states in the country. It’s also the most Catholic state, so policy often means anti-abortion. And just, fuck you very much for hanging your “pro-life” hat on Donald Trump. What is the fucking point of forcing birth into, gestures broadly, all this? The world is figuratively and literally on fire, but gotta keep those embryonic cells safe. Everyone and everything else can just burn, I guess.
Anyway, it was super cold and windy in line, so I used my simmering rage to keep warm.
posted by Ruki at 4:19 PM on November 2, 2020 [8 favorites]
My sister, mom, and I made a collaborative optimism playlist on spotify I’ll be listening to over the next few days. Songs range from everythings gonna be alright to songs that just slap. Here it is if anyone is interested:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7lQe868mFA61YEppYinBT7?si=SoO-tvvITpqOxGx2Lmwnyg
As for me I’m gonna pick up my new glasses tomorrow then go media dark and watch Buffy reruns to remind me that ass kickers are always needed.
posted by supercrayon at 4:26 PM on November 2, 2020 [3 favorites]
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7lQe868mFA61YEppYinBT7?si=SoO-tvvITpqOxGx2Lmwnyg
As for me I’m gonna pick up my new glasses tomorrow then go media dark and watch Buffy reruns to remind me that ass kickers are always needed.
posted by supercrayon at 4:26 PM on November 2, 2020 [3 favorites]
Phone banking in Wisconsin the last couple weeks especially has truly had diminishing returns. Pretty much all of the known strong Dems have already voted(Madison is already at 80 percent turnout, though we will probably top 100 percent with same day registration tomorrow.) so the universe of people we are calling is less and less useful.
Not being able to organize in person canvassing is also just hard. It was the Thing I Did. over the last three years, I have personally cut turf for, and assembled many hundreds of walk packets for my neighborhood action team, going though thousands of sheets of paper and enabling the knocking of thousands of doors (I also knocked doors myself, but I really like cutting the turfs and making packets.) Not being able to do that, and instead just calling and calling, has been so much harder. I hope the work we did the last few years makes a difference now.
posted by rockindata at 6:31 PM on November 2, 2020 [11 favorites]
Not being able to organize in person canvassing is also just hard. It was the Thing I Did. over the last three years, I have personally cut turf for, and assembled many hundreds of walk packets for my neighborhood action team, going though thousands of sheets of paper and enabling the knocking of thousands of doors (I also knocked doors myself, but I really like cutting the turfs and making packets.) Not being able to do that, and instead just calling and calling, has been so much harder. I hope the work we did the last few years makes a difference now.
posted by rockindata at 6:31 PM on November 2, 2020 [11 favorites]
This morning I was asked to take the place of an election clerk who got moved to another polling place, so tomorrow I'll be working what appears to be a relatively sedate spot all day. So much for election day plans, but at least the rule against phone use will give my brain a break.
posted by heteronym at 7:45 PM on November 2, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by heteronym at 7:45 PM on November 2, 2020 [2 favorites]
Tuesday is going to be a nailbiting and anxious day as, along with many millions of other, I closely follow how intensely-contested events unfold in a distant land.
Because it is the last qualifier in the 2020 IPL which this year is being held outside of India. I'm a follower of Kolkata Knight Riders as their captain, Eoin Morgan (born in Dublin), is a brilliant captain and ferocious batsman who has brought success and rare silverware to England.
Partially because of the unfamiliar settings (no home advantage) it's been tight this season, with most teams in it to very nearly the end. Three of the four slots in the final eliminators are decided: Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore all go through. Of today's match between Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad - if Sunrisers win then they go through; if they lose or it's a tie then Kolkata Knight Riders take that last slot.
Throughout the day I'll be sending supportive messages to friends, especially those working the polling stations, in the USA.
Here, I'll be with friends (wearing masks) enjoying the riverside scenery of Bristol for some of the day (before we go into another lockdown), but getting rid of them and closely following the match itself at 14:00 UK time. After that I'll have a nice cup of tea and a biscuit and catch up on things elsewhere, including in the US. Hoping for success for Eoin, and for Joe Biden/Kamala Harris.
posted by Wordshore at 10:02 PM on November 2, 2020 [6 favorites]
Because it is the last qualifier in the 2020 IPL which this year is being held outside of India. I'm a follower of Kolkata Knight Riders as their captain, Eoin Morgan (born in Dublin), is a brilliant captain and ferocious batsman who has brought success and rare silverware to England.
Partially because of the unfamiliar settings (no home advantage) it's been tight this season, with most teams in it to very nearly the end. Three of the four slots in the final eliminators are decided: Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore all go through. Of today's match between Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad - if Sunrisers win then they go through; if they lose or it's a tie then Kolkata Knight Riders take that last slot.
Throughout the day I'll be sending supportive messages to friends, especially those working the polling stations, in the USA.
Here, I'll be with friends (wearing masks) enjoying the riverside scenery of Bristol for some of the day (before we go into another lockdown), but getting rid of them and closely following the match itself at 14:00 UK time. After that I'll have a nice cup of tea and a biscuit and catch up on things elsewhere, including in the US. Hoping for success for Eoin, and for Joe Biden/Kamala Harris.
posted by Wordshore at 10:02 PM on November 2, 2020 [6 favorites]
Freaking out in Australia.
posted by daybeforetheday at 10:28 PM on November 2, 2020
posted by daybeforetheday at 10:28 PM on November 2, 2020
I haven't volunteered or anything but I have noticed a strong uptick in people talking about voting (though I live in a solid state where our votes really don't matter). But in past elections I'd talk to a few people I knew who were politically active and they may mention they voted. This year everyone from friends who were previously apathetic to the guy I barely know at the corner liquor store have been talking about dropping off their ballots. It's everywhere. They won't affect the electoral count but people are fired up like I haven't seen before.
posted by downtohisturtles at 12:50 AM on November 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by downtohisturtles at 12:50 AM on November 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
To ersatzkat way up above, if you're looking for binge watching you (and anyone else!) could always join us....
posted by JHarris at 3:00 AM on November 3, 2020
posted by JHarris at 3:00 AM on November 3, 2020
I did a bunch of GOTV phone banking this year, which I HATE and next cycle I'm switching to texting. I am a Millennial, I hate the phone, it hooks into every bit of all of my brain weasels and people in Pennsylvania were SICK TO DEATH of the calls (I don't answer my phone, ever, but it has been ringing a lot and I don't even live in a swing state). I only picked up a few walk shifts in 2016 and have felt, like, personally responsible for the election and the condition of the world ever since so this felt like penance I needed to flagellate with. The call system broke several times the last couple of weekends and so did the Zoom training rooms, so turnout was high. So, y'know, if you live in PA and answered your phone this month, sorry.
Time to go write my memos for work about the impact of various outcomes for my policy portfolio. Yaaaayyyyy.
posted by bowtiesarecool at 4:31 AM on November 3, 2020 [4 favorites]
Time to go write my memos for work about the impact of various outcomes for my policy portfolio. Yaaaayyyyy.
posted by bowtiesarecool at 4:31 AM on November 3, 2020 [4 favorites]
Thank you for the Pizza to the Polls link, Morfil Ffyrnig! Just sent two pizzas, and feeling like I helped.
posted by zeptoweasel at 8:29 AM on November 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by zeptoweasel at 8:29 AM on November 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
Rural virginia, poll monitoring (democrat). There were lines around the building at 6 am at at least 4 polling stations that I was at or heard about. Everything seems calm and civil so far. Talked a bunch with my republican counterpart; they were getting count updates on their phone, and it sounded like voter tallies around 500 per voting station by noon, which I believe is pretty exceptional for around here. Everyone exclaimed that it was important that people were voting.
Not surprisingly, seemed like a lot of voters wearing Trump gear.
posted by thandal at 10:20 AM on November 3, 2020
Not surprisingly, seemed like a lot of voters wearing Trump gear.
posted by thandal at 10:20 AM on November 3, 2020
Not surprisingly, seemed like a lot of voters wearing Trump gear.
That's illegal, isn't it?
posted by tzikeh at 11:25 AM on November 3, 2020
That's illegal, isn't it?
posted by tzikeh at 11:25 AM on November 3, 2020
We’ve had over 300 voters (in a precinct with just under 1000) and only one person has refused to wear a mask. Another person left hers in the car, but was super apologetic and immediately put on the one we offered. This has greatly increased my faith in humanity. Only three people with Trump gear, none with Biden. Our clerk is wearing pearls for RBG.
posted by Ruki at 11:31 AM on November 3, 2020
posted by Ruki at 11:31 AM on November 3, 2020
That's illegal, isn't it?
No, I don't believe so, for the individual voters (I checked with the local democratic committee folks).
posted by thandal at 11:33 AM on November 3, 2020
No, I don't believe so, for the individual voters (I checked with the local democratic committee folks).
posted by thandal at 11:33 AM on November 3, 2020
Re: Trump gear, it must vary by jurisdiction. Here in Chicago that counts as electioneering and is prohibited inside the polling place. Hats/buttons/etc promoting any candidate on the ballot must be removed. Shirts are harder, but you can ask folks to put on a jacket or something. The Obama years were challenging around here, from what I understand.
posted by gueneverey at 11:58 AM on November 3, 2020
posted by gueneverey at 11:58 AM on November 3, 2020
We were told no electioneering withing 100 yards or feet or something of the polls, and that we could offer people an unspecified "something" to cover it up if they were wearing. If I understood correctly.
At my location, a cap that said MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN would have been permitted, but a cap that said TRUMP would not have been permitted.
posted by aniola at 12:45 PM on November 3, 2020
At my location, a cap that said MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN would have been permitted, but a cap that said TRUMP would not have been permitted.
posted by aniola at 12:45 PM on November 3, 2020
Getting down to the wire, so I am taking the afternoon off from my regular job to put last-minute effort into:
- phone banking and relational outreach for Alaska's US Senate race..
- ..and also for Alaska state representative since the two candidates' campaigns are cooperating
- personal outreach messages to every individual in my address book who might conceivably vote, with special effort given for those who live in swing states.
Lots of women wore pearls today to celebrate RBG. It would be hard to call that electioneering.
posted by theora55 at 6:34 PM on November 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by theora55 at 6:34 PM on November 3, 2020 [2 favorites]
Yeah where I am you're not allowed to wear a thing with a candidate's name on it. So MAGA hat: OK. Trump mask: not OK. Which was what we told the young man with the Trump mask, who was a bit of a pill about it but ultimately turned his mask around so he could vote. We had to tell a few Trumpers about this rule. Biden still won Vermont handily but it was still 66-30%-ish. Kanye West got 17 votes in my town (I am back from counting votes, I won my election!)
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 6:47 PM on November 3, 2020 [9 favorites]
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 6:47 PM on November 3, 2020 [9 favorites]
Congrats, jessamyn!
posted by mochapickle at 3:52 AM on November 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by mochapickle at 3:52 AM on November 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
In the election thread, splitpeasoup says that volunteers to help curing Georgia ballots are needed right now, ending in just a few hours at 5pm eastern today.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 10:12 AM on November 6, 2020
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 10:12 AM on November 6, 2020
Also Nevada! Check mobilize.us, please!
posted by Going To Maine at 10:58 AM on November 6, 2020
posted by Going To Maine at 10:58 AM on November 6, 2020
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Done some phone banking
Volunteered to be a poll worker but apparently they have enough already, which is awesome.
Laid in booze for Tuesday night
posted by emjaybee at 7:26 PM on October 31, 2020 [6 favorites]