Are You Registered?

Today is national voter registration day. Let’s celebrate, and let’s make sure the people around us are all registered to vote. No putting it off for a day that never comes until it’s too late.

You can register or check your registration status to make sure you’re an active voter, here.

Every state has its own rules, so this is a good opportunity to read up. Can you vote absentee? Where can you vote if you’re a student? Lots of important questions like that, and this is a good time to educate yourself.

If you’ve been a subscriber to Civil Discourse for a while, you know that we’re concerned with everything it takes to have the impact you’re entitled to as a citizen who possesses the right to vote—registering, staying registered, voting, and having your vote counted. Increasingly, every step of the process has come under attack as Republicans impose measures, justified by non-existent threats of voter fraud, to suppress the ability of people they believe aren’t on “their side” to vote. This isn’t a new trend or purely a Trump thing—I’ve spent much of my career fighting against voter suppression. But under Trump, the Republican party put it on steroids.

Voting is always a family day for us, including our daughter, who flew home to vote in person with her Dad, who was on the ballot in 2018

That means everything from efforts to “clean up” the voter rolls—resulting in inactive status and lots of hoops to jump through before your vote will be counted—to limiting the days and times you can vote, working an injustice on people who have to work or care for children or parents. We’ll pay attention to all of it here as primary season begins, and the 2024 election gets closer.

But for now, it’s the first step. Register if you aren’t already today!

Make sure your registration status is active. And make a celebration of it—make sure your friends and family register to vote and commit to educating themselves about all of the candidates, both up and down ballot today. We have a Republic to keep.

Me, in line to vote in 2016 (and of course, knitting), looking a little confused about why I’m having my picture taken

We’re in this together,

Joyce