Voting

I made a resolution at the beginning of this year that I would write everyday. Apparently that one didn't stick. Thank god others on the list have. But today I felt inspired. (Hopefully writing this post will also inevitably inspire me to continue writing...)

So today's thoughts, musings, grievance... our election process.

Not a huge surprise why so many people don't vote in this country. I'm sure much of our electorate's lack of participation comes from apathy, a general disinterest in the process and sadly, a belief that their vote just doesn't matter. But I'm fairly certain that the bigger problem is the voting system itself.

I am an educated and politically active (active in the sense that I read and watch just about everything, and from my sofa and keyboard I debate and theorize just like a pundit.) But yet, the system is so antiquated and flawed that it makes it difficult for even someone as interested as I am, to participate.

I have lived in the west village in Manhattan for the last 14 years, in 4 different apartments. My most recent place, I moved into 9 months ago. Although I only moved 3 blocks away, it occurred to me this morning that my polling location may be different now. (I had heard that the Gay & Lesbian Alliance located 1/2 block from me now was a polling center.) And because I don't want to deal with the confusion tomorrow morning, I decided to try to figure out where I should be voting today.

First stop, naturally online. Got to the NYC Board of Elections site. They did have an online poll site address locator, which did confirm that I should be voting at the Gay & Lesbian Alliance. But it didn't tell me anywhere on the site what to do in my situation. Would this location have me on their list? Would I be able to actually vote there? Or would I inevitably be shuttled back to my previous voting location? I would imagine that this would be a fairly common inquiry, yet no mention of it on the site. So I called the phone number. I figured it would take forever to get a human being on the phone, but decided I'd try anyway. To my surprise, only after a handful of prompts providing the needed info without a person, I actually got a real live human being. Very nice, very informative. But the information he provided riled me.

Yes,I should be voting at the Gay & Lesbian alliance, and not at p.s. 41, where I'd been voting for the last 5 years. Although I had only moved 3 blocks away, I was now in a different district and was "required by law" to vote in my specified district. (Which he told me with a wink.) But of course, the catch is that the "correct" location wouldn't have me listed on their polling list, but p.s. 41 would. I could, however, vote tomorrow at the Alliance with an affadavit, filled out at the polling location, essentially proving that I now lived in this district.

Theoretically, not a huge deal. But then it all came back to me. When I had moved to my last apartment. I went to vote, right place, but wrong list. Frustrated and pissed off, I had to go back home to get the proof I needed, phone bill, con ed bill, etc. It was because I was motivated and cared, and because my polling place was again, 1/2 block from my apartment, it was easy to do. But what if it was 4 blocks away, and it was raining, and I had to get to a meeting... maybe i would have bagged it, justifying to myself that elections in New York are usually a run away one way or the other..

Bottom line is this: When I asked him how this should be done properly, so I would have been on the correct list, he said I would have needed to call the Board of Elections to give them my new address. And this is what's crazy. Who the hell thinks about calling the board of elections when you move? You change addresses with your bank, phone company, cable, of course. But board of elections? Definitely not. Not even on my radar of thought. Why isn't there a database of registered voters countrywide (or even just statewide for starters) which would allow someone to vote anywhere they were - whether out of the country, in another state, online or at a polling place. Or even a simpler step, let me change my address online.

I realize we aren't close to getting to this point, as we can't even figure out as a country which digital technology to use so that there isn't voting fraud or worse the vote just isn't tallied because of malfunctions to the system. Then, there is the voter ID issue, currently being heard by the supreme court. They are ruling on the legality of states to require government-issued photo identification cards as proof of identity for voters at the polls. Naturally Republicans side with requiring voter ID claiming it will stop fraud. (Even though studies have indicated that voter impersonation, the reason for voter id's in the first place, doesn't even exist.) It's pretty clear cut, Republicans want to further disenfranchise the already disenfranchised (poor, un/under educated, minorities) from the process, as this group in general tend to vote for Democrats. "Let's make it so difficult for them to vote, and hopefully they won't." There are a plethora of problems with our current voting process. I've only touched on a very few... the list is maybe not endless, but certainly long.

I personally staved off a morning of frustration for myself because I called ahead and will bring the required paperwork, probably (hopefully)only adding another 10 minutes or so to the whole process. But it is because I called, am interested and committed to being part of the very process and system that allows EVERYONE to vote, I will have an easy time of it tomorrow. But I wonder how many people just won't vote at all, or even try to vote, because of a system that doesn't make it easy or inclusive for them to participate. That reality bothers me on so many levels. But mostly as just someone who truly believes in both fairness and justice. And our current system most definitely fails on both accounts.