Voting PSA 9/21-10/4 (Staggering Hypocrisy edition)

As I said last weekend, it’s public service announcement time here at Art for Art’s Sake Press. We want everyone to exercise their right to vote. To do that, we’re adding special posts to give readers a heads-up on when their states open the window for early or absentee voting. The table below has your options if you live in Vermont (hi Bernie!), Missouri, Illinois, Michigan and Connecticut.

Today, I particularly want to urge anyone who loathes hypocrisy to get off the fence and cast a blue ballot. The absolutely bald-faced gall displayed by Mitch McConnell has taken my breath away. The honorable Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had barely drawn her last breath (and Mike Pence has already sniped about her last requests that her seat not be filled until after Inauguration Day), when McConnell announced he would indeed be enthusiastic about filling her seat as soon as possible.

Despite the fact we are less than 45 days from Election Day. Despite the fact we are still at least 120-odd days from Inauguration Day. And — most despicably — despite the fact that he refused to even countenance President Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, because Election Day was then only … 293 … days away.

293 vs 45 days…

Let that sink in. Let your mind absorb the enormity of this reversal of policy. Let your soul smell the degree of hypocrisy a man must be capable of to score a political goal. Can it ever be justifiable?

I suppose if you believe the packing of America’s courts with exceptionally conservative justices (and mostly conservative on social matters that used to be a personal choice, like, say, marrying a black or gay person or allowing women to decide whether they can carry a pregnancy to term) is worth any price, then you’ll agree with ol’ Mitch. Devil take that old-fashioned notion of integrity and drown it!

I think it’s disgraceful. And it’s long past due time to relieve McConnell of the gavel in the Senate.

Here are your voting updates for the fortnight 9/21-10/4

Sept. 21	Vermont
Sept. 22	Missouri
Sept. 24	Illinois and Michigan
Oct. 2	Connecticut

These links come from a calendar of early voting access, state by state, published by The New York Times. For which a huge thank you! There’s also information about mail-ballots in NPR’s article Mail-in Voting Rules by State.

Read the fine print at the links for your state. Watch out for tricks and stumbling blocks in the process. Your state may require you to apply for early voting privileges. Then, it may give you a very short window before that early voting day. Similarly, if you request an absentee ballot, you may have to also return it in a very short window of time. Decide not to vote early or absentee after requesting permission to do so, and you could face hassles at your polling station on actual Election Day.

What else can you do? In addition to voting yourself, see if you can help someone else vote — maybe by driving them to the polling station (wear your masks!). Offer to help register under-represented citizens. Volunteer to be a poll worker if you’re young and healthy enough to do so. Work with those working to eliminate gerrymandering. Join a campaign in your state for permanent mail-ballot voting, as we do here in Washington, or perhaps making Election Day a national holiday.

This week’s Vote Now photographs…

Top: Buckingham Fountain and city skyline, Chicago, Illinois (L. J. Cameron)
Bottom: Gateway Arch and Old Courthouse Building, St Louis, Missouri (T. J. Sagosz)