When you go to your polling place for the primary, and you are turned away because your party doesn’t have a primary candidate in your district, it makes you feel powerless.
In November, I will get to vote, but in the presidential election, in a redder than red state, my vote doesn’t count. Why? In Oklahoma, as it is in all but two states, Maine and Nebraska, all the Electoral College votes go to the winner.
When you are in the minority, either red or blue, you don’t feel heard.
What if the Electoral College reflected the popular vote? Wouldn’t that be fair?
Unfortunately, too many candidates have lost the popular vote and won the office, so it would be a hard sell to make needed changes, or to get rid of the Electoral College entirely. The party that has benefitted most from the Electoral College this century is the one trying to make their voters doubt the integrity of the vote. Oh, the irony!
In Oklahoma, one candidate is telling her constituents that giving a driver’s license to an undocumented person will give them the ability to vote.
No. A driver’s license or other ID isn’t all you need to vote. You have to register and get on the rolls. What’s more, denying noncitizen workers a driver’s license could result in traffic charges for them that could hurt their chances of being able to stay in the country or become citizens. Maybe that’s the candidate’s real goal.
Misinformation isn’t good for democracy. It sows confusion. It causes people to make poor decisions. How often do lies keep someone from exercising their right to vote?
How do we counter the lies? How do we get someone to believe the truth if the lie suits them better? This is the job of journalists, honest politicians, and patriots in this contentious election season, a job that would be much easier without the former Liar in Chief and his enablers.
What if every one of us voted for democracy in November, no vote left behind?
Let’s get loud enough to be heard.
