Be Kind to Poll Workers

A worthy sentiment:

Be kind to Maryland’s primary election workers today - - Staff Commentary, Baltimore Sun

I can’t tell you if the piece itself is any good, because it is behind a paywall and I’m no longer a subscriber. I’ve been a strong advocate for subscribing to local journalism and I understand why newspapers are asking us to pay for it. Still it’s a choice to put this particular piece behind a paywall. If I wanted to encourage people to exercise their right to vote, I’d make a piece like this easily accessible.

UPDATE: I have since found some election coverage by the Sun available without a paywall today. The piece above is not one of them. 

That’s the thing about voting. In our country there’s a huge divide between the party who believes that The People’s participation in the democratic process is so important that we have a responsibility to remove as many obstacles to participation as we possibly can. Then there’s the party that believes that The Vote is so important that not just everyone should get one.

To summarize, we have two schools of thought:

• We, the people
• The vetted, the approved, the worthy

Here in Howard County, it is very easy to vote in today’s primary election. You can vote by mail/use any of ten drop boxes. You can vote during Early Voting at five different locations. You can vote in Election Day at your designated polling place. (I don’t know how many of those there are. Help me out.)

If you want to know why voting is so easy and convenient in Howard County, you need only look at my statements above. 

Of course there’s another reason. Howard County is just white enough and just affluent enough (and just small enough) that there’s an over-arching sentiment that voting should be easy and convenient. I know this sounds cynical, but, hear me out.

The white and affluent want voting to be easy and convenient for them because “of course it should” and they have never experienced anything else.

Voting policies and procedures put in place and maintained by Democrats protect not only them, but everyone else, too.

We are never going to have to take time off from work, lose pay, and risk losing a job to vote here in HoCo. We won’t have to stand in line eight hours or more to vote. We’re not going to wake up and discover that our polling place has been closed and the new one is inaccessible to us. Or that we have been mysteriously purged from the voter rolls. Well, at least right now we won’t.

Never say never. 

In some ways, every single election is an election for the freedom to vote. And in every single election you will see people actively trying to take that right away from people they don’t like. There’s a variety of ways that can be done, and they’re all happening across the United States right now. One of the tactics is threatening and harassing poll workers so that fewer will come forward to participate in a free and fair election process.

So, be kind to Maryland’s Primary election workers today. Think about volunteering, if you are able, in the next election. Teach and show your children how vital voting is to our democracy and that it should be easily accessible to all who may legally vote. 

You can vote in U.S. federal, state, and local elections if you:

Are a U.S. citizen (some areas allow non-citizens to vote in local elections only)

Meet your state’s residency requirements

  You can be experiencing homelessness and still meet these requirements.

Are 18 years old on or before Election Day

  In almost every state, you can register to vote before you turn 18 if you will be 18 by Election Day. 

  Some states allow 17-year-olds who will be 18 by Election Day to vote in primaries.

Are registered to vote by your state's voter registration deadline. North Dakota does not require voter registration. - - USA.gov

I think we sometimes forget how fortunate we are in Howard County when it comes to voting. In Baltimore, people who’d like to control who votes and who gets elected aren’t making the laws just yet. But they do own a television station and they just bought the newspaper. 

There’s a lot to be angry and disappointed and disheartened about right now in local and national politics. Do not let that keep you from voting. Please, please, please take your angry and disappointed and disheartened self to the polls and use your vote to support the kind of government you believe in and want to see more of. 

Village Green/Town² Comments