by Pa Rock
Voter
Missouri is a Trump state, though it pains me greatly to admit it. It is one of those states that fights the movement toward making it easier to vote. While I, on the other hand, am a person who relishes my right to vote and does not want to spend time in long lines listening to old people spout conspiracy theories and racist nonsense while waiting on my turn to cast a ballot.
Missouri traditionally allows absentee voting for a small variety of reasons, including one where the prospective voter tells the county clerk or a member of their staff that they will be "out of town" on Election Day. That is essentially the process that Donald Trump and all of his politico underlings use to avoid flying home to vote on Election Day. Generally I go to my county clerk's office a couple of weeks before the election, look her in the eye and tell her that I will be out of town on the date of the upcoming election, and vote an absentee ballot while I am in her office.
But this year, because I have been so faithful in staying home due to the rampaging virus and a broken shoulder, I really wanted to minimize the time that I would spend around others while voting. I went on-line to the Missouri Secretary of State's website to see what the requirements were going to be for voting in the state's primary on August 4th. There I learned that I qualified on two fronts for voting absentee by mail, and that I would not even have to have my ballot notarized in order to use the mail-in process for either of those reasons.
The reasons that I can vote from home with relative ease for this one upcoming election is that I am in a couple of "at risk" categories for catching the coronavirus: I am sixty-five years or age or older, and I am diabetic. Having had major heart surgery less than ten years ago, I probably could have qualified under "Have serious heart conditions" as well.
So I filled out the on-line form - easy peasy - which had to be turned in to the local county clerk. Her office is less than two miles from my house - about half the distance that it is to my local polling place - so I dropped it by after a doctor's visit last Wednesday afternoon. The clerk's office was sealed relatively tightly due to the virus, so I slid my application through a slot in a window, and a very nice lady took it back to her registration books to check the status. Then she told me that all was in order and that I would receive a ballot in the mail in about three days. I asked it I could mark it and return it as soon as it arrived, and she assured me that I could.
My ballot arrived this past Saturday afternoon. I will mark it this morning and send it back in today's mail. The good people in the clerk's office even sprang for the postage!
I chose to receive a Democratic Party primary ballot. (Voters in Missouri do not register by political party affiliation, which means that our state has "open primaries" where voters may choose any party's ballot when they vote in a primary election - and sometimes voters intentionally choose a ballot that is contrary to their core political beliefs just to mess with the other guys. I've even done that myself, but not this time.)
I was pleased to see that Democrats fielded candidates for every office on the ballot. That is not always the case in extremely rural southern Missouri, so a full ballot is an indication of some enthusiasm within the party ranks. (There were actually only two positions in which multiple candidates filed, so political "choice" remains limited - at least for Democrats.)
However, my primary interest in this particular election is not with the candidates. Missouri has one Constitutional Amendment on the ballot that is of extreme importance, and that is what has me fired up.
Our legislature has fought the notion of expanding Medicaid for years, and now that we have a Republican governor, he too does everything he can to insure that Mssourians do not have access to affordable health care. But Missourians have a long history of defeating redneck positions through direct action at the polls.
Years ago our legislature passed a "concealed carry" handgun bill, but citizens took that to the polls and defeated it. A couple of years later the legislature passed it again over the will of the people. And then more recently the Missouri legislature made our state a "Right to Work" state, a union-busting measure designed to impair the earning ability of workers in the state. That too, went before the people who proceeded to correct the state legislature's ham-handed attempt to defeat the notion of unions in Missouri.
In 2018 Missourians passed the "Clean Missouri" Act - with 62% in favor - a measure to make congressional redistricting a non-partisan affair, and the Republican majority in the legislature and the Republican governor were predictably incensed. Drawing congressional districts after each census is a big political perk for the party in power - and they did not want to lose that advantage to some "fair" process. So this year Republicans have been at work trying to draft a Constitutional Amendment with language confusing enough that it could fool voters into undoing what they did in 2018. That measure will be on the November general election ballot where some feel that it will be used as a cudgel by GOP partisans who will paint the original "Clean Missouri" as somehow being "pro-immigrant."
It's a never-ending battle between the people of Missouri and their elected legislators, with the people being far more progressive than their "leaders." On August 4th, after years of our legislature refusing to expand Medicaid, the people will finally have their say - and I will have my say today!
Missouri needs to expand Medicaid in order to bring affordable health care to more of the state's citizens - and to insure the viability and sustainability of the state's small hospitals and rural clinics - and I am voting to make that happen.
And, just to pour a little more salt in that wound - I am casting the vote using the US Mail! It's a process called "democracy," and the more people who get access to it, the better it works.
Here is what Missouri poet Langston Hughes had to say about democracy:
Voter
Missouri is a Trump state, though it pains me greatly to admit it. It is one of those states that fights the movement toward making it easier to vote. While I, on the other hand, am a person who relishes my right to vote and does not want to spend time in long lines listening to old people spout conspiracy theories and racist nonsense while waiting on my turn to cast a ballot.
Missouri traditionally allows absentee voting for a small variety of reasons, including one where the prospective voter tells the county clerk or a member of their staff that they will be "out of town" on Election Day. That is essentially the process that Donald Trump and all of his politico underlings use to avoid flying home to vote on Election Day. Generally I go to my county clerk's office a couple of weeks before the election, look her in the eye and tell her that I will be out of town on the date of the upcoming election, and vote an absentee ballot while I am in her office.
But this year, because I have been so faithful in staying home due to the rampaging virus and a broken shoulder, I really wanted to minimize the time that I would spend around others while voting. I went on-line to the Missouri Secretary of State's website to see what the requirements were going to be for voting in the state's primary on August 4th. There I learned that I qualified on two fronts for voting absentee by mail, and that I would not even have to have my ballot notarized in order to use the mail-in process for either of those reasons.
The reasons that I can vote from home with relative ease for this one upcoming election is that I am in a couple of "at risk" categories for catching the coronavirus: I am sixty-five years or age or older, and I am diabetic. Having had major heart surgery less than ten years ago, I probably could have qualified under "Have serious heart conditions" as well.
So I filled out the on-line form - easy peasy - which had to be turned in to the local county clerk. Her office is less than two miles from my house - about half the distance that it is to my local polling place - so I dropped it by after a doctor's visit last Wednesday afternoon. The clerk's office was sealed relatively tightly due to the virus, so I slid my application through a slot in a window, and a very nice lady took it back to her registration books to check the status. Then she told me that all was in order and that I would receive a ballot in the mail in about three days. I asked it I could mark it and return it as soon as it arrived, and she assured me that I could.
My ballot arrived this past Saturday afternoon. I will mark it this morning and send it back in today's mail. The good people in the clerk's office even sprang for the postage!
I chose to receive a Democratic Party primary ballot. (Voters in Missouri do not register by political party affiliation, which means that our state has "open primaries" where voters may choose any party's ballot when they vote in a primary election - and sometimes voters intentionally choose a ballot that is contrary to their core political beliefs just to mess with the other guys. I've even done that myself, but not this time.)
I was pleased to see that Democrats fielded candidates for every office on the ballot. That is not always the case in extremely rural southern Missouri, so a full ballot is an indication of some enthusiasm within the party ranks. (There were actually only two positions in which multiple candidates filed, so political "choice" remains limited - at least for Democrats.)
However, my primary interest in this particular election is not with the candidates. Missouri has one Constitutional Amendment on the ballot that is of extreme importance, and that is what has me fired up.
Our legislature has fought the notion of expanding Medicaid for years, and now that we have a Republican governor, he too does everything he can to insure that Mssourians do not have access to affordable health care. But Missourians have a long history of defeating redneck positions through direct action at the polls.
Years ago our legislature passed a "concealed carry" handgun bill, but citizens took that to the polls and defeated it. A couple of years later the legislature passed it again over the will of the people. And then more recently the Missouri legislature made our state a "Right to Work" state, a union-busting measure designed to impair the earning ability of workers in the state. That too, went before the people who proceeded to correct the state legislature's ham-handed attempt to defeat the notion of unions in Missouri.
In 2018 Missourians passed the "Clean Missouri" Act - with 62% in favor - a measure to make congressional redistricting a non-partisan affair, and the Republican majority in the legislature and the Republican governor were predictably incensed. Drawing congressional districts after each census is a big political perk for the party in power - and they did not want to lose that advantage to some "fair" process. So this year Republicans have been at work trying to draft a Constitutional Amendment with language confusing enough that it could fool voters into undoing what they did in 2018. That measure will be on the November general election ballot where some feel that it will be used as a cudgel by GOP partisans who will paint the original "Clean Missouri" as somehow being "pro-immigrant."
It's a never-ending battle between the people of Missouri and their elected legislators, with the people being far more progressive than their "leaders." On August 4th, after years of our legislature refusing to expand Medicaid, the people will finally have their say - and I will have my say today!
Missouri needs to expand Medicaid in order to bring affordable health care to more of the state's citizens - and to insure the viability and sustainability of the state's small hospitals and rural clinics - and I am voting to make that happen.
And, just to pour a little more salt in that wound - I am casting the vote using the US Mail! It's a process called "democracy," and the more people who get access to it, the better it works.
Here is what Missouri poet Langston Hughes had to say about democracy:
Democracy
by Langston Hughes
Democracy will not come
Today, this year
Nor ever
Through compromise and fear.
I have as much right
As the other fellow has
To stand
On my two feet
And own the land.
I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I'm dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow's bread.
Freedom
Is a strong seed
Planted
In a great need.
I live here, too.
I want freedom
Just as you.
by Langston Hughes
Democracy will not come
Today, this year
Nor ever
Through compromise and fear.
I have as much right
As the other fellow has
To stand
On my two feet
And own the land.
I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I'm dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow's bread.
Freedom
Is a strong seed
Planted
In a great need.
I live here, too.
I want freedom
Just as you.
No comments:
Post a Comment