In the coffee room, I was discussing Rachel Maddow’s description of long voting lines as a kind of poll tax, and I told my co-worker that lines were four hours long in some places (longer, sometimes, but I never got a chance to say that). And she said if it was four hours long, she wouldn’t vote.
And I was sort of stunned. I mean, this is an educated, upper-middle class woman in reasonably good health, with a good and tolerant job and whose children are grown. In other words, no reason not to vote except inconvenience. But she wouldn’t wait for four hours?
I get that the voting lines are wrong and fucked up. But give up your franchise? For convenience? I’m just shocked. Just. Shocked.
Your vote is the irreducible unit of a democracy. It’s the piece of you that is an American. And when long lines drive away people who have to work or care for children or who have disabilities that prevent them from standing there, then that is a problem. But if those aren’t issues? FUCKING VOTE.
That is all.
I’ve been giving a similar PSA to all my students since the beginning of the semester. VOTE. I’ve been pointedly directing that imperative to my female and African-American students because their enfranchisement was so hard fought.
Has this fool never heard of an absentee ballot? It takes a minor amount of forethought (you have to ask for one) but making voting more convenient is basically what they’re for.
I feel guilty because I didn’t have to wait at all at my polling place. Got there at 5:45 PM, walked right in (no line), signed in, walked straight into the booth, and voted. Done by 5:50.
I had no line either, Mel, same as you. Molly, my co-worker has probably never waited on line to vote for more than a minute or two, and was imagining what she would or wouldn’t do. I was appalled by how little she valued her vote. But truthfully, if Bergen County, New Jersey routinely had long lines, she might think of alternative plans.