signal boosting: rides to the polls

[redbird]

Signal-boosting rydra_wong's post:

Lyft are going to be providing half-price or free rides to the polls on Nov 6 for those in need:

https://twitter.com/lyft/status/1032666321551544321
https://blog.lyft.com/posts/2018/8/22/get-out-the-vote

Across the country, we’ll give away 50% off promo codes with our partners that encourage voter turnout. We’re thrilled to be working with Vote.org, Nonprofit Vote, TurboVote and more to help distribute codes to those who need them. We’ll also have a product integration to help passengers find their polling location.

For underserved communities, we’ll provide rides free of cost through nonpartisan, nonprofit partners, including Voto Latino, local Urban League affiliates, and the National Federation of the Blind.

(Like Rydra, I am not the biggest fan of ride-sharing apps, but even here the T may not go to your polling place, rather than several hilly blocks away.)

Comments

[the_rck]

I’m considering absentee voting because I can’t stand for very long and have agoraphobia. I might not even make it into the building if there are a lot of people. I’m fine for the elections with low turnout, but more people make panic at the time and a migraine after more likely.

I’ve thought about trying to take a chair to help with the standing in line, but that would require a ride there and home as well as me repeatedly getting up to move it.

[redbird]

Those sound like very good reasons to get an absentee ballot. It may be your civic duty to vote: it's not your duty to suffer unnecessarily in order to do so.

My reasons for voting in person are some combination of habit (I like the ritual of going to the polling place) and a vague thought that more information might turn up at the last minute. That's not true for every race—for example, I am going to vote for whichever Democrat gets the nomination for governor of Massachusetts next month, because both of them are much better than either Republican candidate—but sometimes information is harder to come by, or the decisions are closer. I have two choices for congress in the upcoming primary, and they're close enough on the issues that the incumbent's campaign flier is about how strongly he opposes Trump, and the challenger's is about representing everyone in the district and the need for passionate leadership. (At the moment I am leaning toward the challenger, Pressley, but if Capuano gets another term that's fine too.)

Now that I think about it, last-minute stuff in my experience has included urging people to vote for the dead candidate (who had been the incumbent), and early voting might have meant people voted for him before he died. (The only other person on the ballot was a bad choice, and under New York law, when a dead person won an election, there would be a new election, starting over with new candidates.)

[the_rck]

I don’t expect last minute information to alter how I vote. Local politics are such that whoever won the Democratic nomination will win for city and county offices. None of the local judges face opponents. I think there might be nonpartisan races for library board, and I will have to research the candidates for the state Supreme Court (technically nonpartisan but endorsed by parties).

Most of the Republican candidates are vile enough that I’d rather vote for a dead snake, so the actual Democratic candidates would probably have to come after me with a literal axe to lose my vote. For that matter, an axe wielding Gretchen Whitmer still couldn’t be worse than Bill Schuette, so...

[redbird]

That makes sense. Where I am the Democratic primary will choose the Congressmember and district attorney, barring surprise write-in candidacies.

The real question for me is, vote in the Democratic primary because I have a strong preference for DA, or in the Republican primary as one more vote against the horrible anti-gay candidate for governor. (I doubt the incumbent has much chance of losing that primary, short of doing something horrible at the last minute, or dying suddenly.)

[thnidu]

«doing something horrible at the last minute, or dying suddenly»

So mote it be!

[adrian_turtle]

Different states have different rules on who can get absentee ballots. (Texas is extremely restrictive, for voters under 65.) My mother lives in Michigan and is old enough to get an absent voter ballot easily, but she always waits until the last minute and hopes she will feel well enough to drive herself to the polls. I will remind her ONCE that she can vote absentee, because I don't want to suppress anybody's vote. But I will not say it more than once, because I fear she will vote for bigoted candidates and evil policies.

The_RCK says she doesn't need last-minute information to decide how she votes. Odds are dangerously high that she will need to vote against all the republicans. I don't think she should rely on last-minute information to decide where she votes, either. Odds are dangerously high she will not be able to deal with the polls without damaging herself. Being disabled means nobody is going to challenge the application for an absent ballot, so go for it.
https://www.michigan.gov/sos/0,4670,7-127-1633_8716_8728-21037--,00.html

[the_rck]

I'd say the odds of me needing to vote against dangerous Republicans are near 100%. At the very least, I need to do it for governor and Senate.

I have voted absentee before, pretty much every other November. If I don't expect long lines, I'll go to the polling place, though, because the barriers for me are standing for very long and dealing with a lot of people in a very small space. If there are only 2-3 people in front of me, I'm okay, but there were about 6 ahead of me at the primary this year, and that pushed things.

[redbird]

I will definitely be voting against the Republican, as well as for the Democrat, for governor in November. That said, Scott Lively (the gay-bashing challenger) is worse than Charlie Baker (the incumbent).

[minoanmiss]

I heartily recommend absentee voting. I don't have nearly as many good reasons as you do and I did for the last election just to be done and try to ignore all the electioneering.

[redbird]

As I said, my main reason for not getting an absentee ballot is that I am fond of the ritual of going to the polling place: I think anyone who wants an absentee ballot, and can get one, should. I lived in Washington for three years, and yes I missed the voting booths, but having everyone vote by mail leads to higher turnout, which is good. (It also leads to things like a candidate giving a victory speech on election night, then conceding two weeks later when all the late-mailed ballots have been counted. I was amused by this, separately from being pleased by the first Socialist elected t the Seattle city council in more than a century.)

[minoanmiss]

Oh, there's definitely something to be said for the Ritual of Voting too. :) Here is where I should say something witty and charming about how wonderful having multiple choices is, or something like that. blushes