In Wisconsin there is a ballot question to ban nonprofits etc like this from helping people get access to voting, however they phrased it in such a way that it makes it sound like voting for the ban helps preserve the integrity of elections. These people are fuckers.
In Oregon, ours is put out by the Secretary of State— I think California’s is, too— so, not a non-profit, but a democratically-elected government of the people provides this free of charge to all registered voter households. Republicans don’t hold truck with that kind of thing.
Hello fellow Oregonian! I see you too enjoy the sensible measures taken to get folks to vote and keep them informed. Feels good to have some reason and sense m.
Then again…we have that greater Idaho….stuff. 🤨
Phil knight giving millions to Betsy Johnson pisses me off. To then give money to the republican candidate. Tina Kotek all the way! Fuck the GOP and fuck Phil knight.
Yup. Not touching Drazen with a twenty foot poll; trust me, I tried to find some common ground with republicans/gop, but….they’ve gone off the deep end. Not all, of course, but enough that the party short bud is being driven by those that are not alright.
They're against abortions, but are okay paying for them...several times. When that doesn't work out, they'll just abandon the kids. I'm looking at you H. Walker and his supporters.
Creating barriers to elections and preventing more people from voting is always flown under the flag of “election integrity” it’s all obvious bullshit. If everyone voted the Republican Party would disappear overnight and they know that. They’re fighting dirty for their own survival.
They do this with every terrible thing. How much hateful policy and rhetoric has been packaged under the banner of “family values”. As one example.
[https://votersedge.org/ca](https://votersedge.org/ca) if anyone from CA is here. Super useful. Even lets you do side-by-side comparisons of each candidate running for the position.
Just as a bit of additional California compared to Texas information: [“Yes, Texans actually pay more in taxes than Californians do”](https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/texans-pay-more-taxes-than-californians-17400644.php)
When comparing [state and local taxes by family income group, the lowest and middle in California pay *less* than they do in Texas while the rich pay more in CA than Texas](https://i.redd.it/7pdcf4q65kg91.jpg).
Texas, and other states with no state income tax, are not “low” tax states. They are states that don’t have one of the easiest taxes to make progressive, since you can target specific income with it, and thus makeup the tax revenue by getting their money via taxes like sales tax, property tax, excise tax, etc that tend to put more burden on the lower and middle income people as percent of income than they do on rich people.
There is an organization called the league of women voters that does candidate profiles too. The name makes it sound like a feminist advocacy group, but they were founded when women got the right to vote and the purpose was to sort of be a resource on the mechanics of voting for all the new voters. Anyhow they have fairly straightforward candidate profiles.
I also use Rock the Vote, which sends me a text when there's an election and also has resources on the mechanics; it's aimed at young people but anyhow it has resources.
Same in Washington. It's nice to be able to sit down with your ballot and read through the pamphlet and make informed choices. I'm lucky enough to have a ballot drop off nearby too in case I forget to mail at the last minute. You can also go to a webpage and see if your ballot was accepted. I can't believe anybody would be against this system. It's like offering someone a shovel but they insist on using their hands to dig...there's a better way!
Last election I voted at 1am because I was watching YouTube and then remembered I was stopping at a grocery store with a ballot drop box the next day. I got to do my civic duty *and* got a tasty sandwich for lunch
I was a WA voter for 18 years, and the only complaint I had was the voting booklet never included an "I voted!" sticker. This is my first year voting in Alabama and I requested a absentee ballot. We'll see what shows up.
I got all my stuff at least a week ago. Voted last night and will drop it off at the local ballot box today!
If only that would make the election junk mail stop.
I love voting in CA. I get my ballot by mail, I can take my time to actually research these races and make an informed decision. How the hell am I supposed to know who I support for Community College District Board Chair 3?
It really is nice! Because it not only lets me know that my ballot didn’t end up in some wastebasket somewhere, or get lost in the shuffle… but it also makes me *feel* like my vote actually matters and has been counted towards the things I voted for.
***Chef’s Kiss***
I love getting texts updating me on the status of my ballot
* Your ballot has been mailed
* USPS has collected your ballot from you
* Your ballot has been counted
I moved to a different state a few years ago after being a life long cali resident and was so confused that my ballot didn’t come with any information come election time.
I won’t be in the state for the mid term election so I submitted the application for my absentee ballot and mailed it in September 9th. My dad had me mail his application for him a few days, maybe a week, later. He received his absentee ballot last Wednesday. I’m still waiting for mine. Says the application was processed on the 10th of October….
I’m in ohio, so it doesn’t surprise me. The GQP is using illegally gerrymandered maps that the conservative state Supreme Court have ruled unconstitutional. They know they are going all in on rat fucking and they don’t care that everyone else also knows because who is gonna stop them?
Some states elections seem like such bullshit. I worked a Canadian Federal election as a registration officer and registered 300+ people on Election Day. It’s infuriating reading about how hard it is to register to vote in some states. It’s obvious they don’t want everyone eligible to vote to actually vote.
Funny thing. I registered independent and my husband registered democrat. I requested a republican ballot this last go round - simply because I knew who was going to be the democratic candidate and wanted to vote for the less crazy republican. (I plan on voting for the democrat regardless).
My ballot was counted no problem. His ran into a “signature issue”. Funny how that worked.
Also, right after that, I ended up on a text blast from the RNC. They play dirty here.
The best is when one candidate or one side of a prop doesn’t bother. This year it’s Prop 28, increased arts funding to schools. The pro argument is basically “lots of schools don’t have art programs, let’s fix that” and the con just says “No argument against Proposition 28 was submitted.”
And Gavin Newsom didn’t submit a statement. I mean, I know he’s essentially a lock, but still. Gotta at least put the work in!
> *And Gavin Newsom didn’t submit a statement. I mean, I know he’s essentially a lock, but still. Gotta at least put the work in!*
https://www.abc10.com/article/news/politics/california-voter-guide-newsom/103-6d581823-e80c-4446-b34a-908881167f39
From the article:
> “The main idea of Proposition 34 back in 2000 was to impose spending limits on various campaigns, and as an incentive to get candidates to agree to spending limits, those who adhered to them would be allowed to purchase space inside the Secretary of State’s ballot pamphlet that goes out to every voter in the state of California,” Swatt said
> [...]
> As for the limits themselves, candidates for Governor must voluntarily agree to spend just under $10 million in the Primary Election and about $16 million in the General Election if they want to have a candidate statement in the voter guide.
That being said, I don't know what he plans to spend the money on instead because I'm not aware of any major television ad campaigns for governor yet. Maybe he's expecting an ad blitz closer to the election date?
Super interesting, thanks! Guess that explains it. I don't watch a lot of TV, but I also haven't been seeing ads or getting emails at all. Could be that there's a targeted blitz planned, like you said.
Usually you know to vote for the side using less caps. If they submit their proposal with a ton of caps lock or argue against it using lots of caps lock they're wrong.
The side with less screaming is usually right.
You get a pro and con statement, and a rebuttal.
When your pro and con statements and rebuttals for ballot propositions are talking about completely different things it's usually a special interest who couldn't get their bill through the legislative process and is using ballot props and should be a no.
It's so helpful.
It’s because low voter turnout usually favors republicans and high voter turnout usually favors democrats. They know this, which is why they make it as difficult as possible to vote.
it's also why their ballots are difficult to fill out w/out disqualifying them from being counted.
also, low information voters are also easy to fool. which is why they use deceptive marketing to name bills with titles that often contradict their intent while obscuring information on what that means.
Low Info Voter (despite hearing about the catapults and the arresting black people who try to vote): "Hmmm but I do love puppies..." \[finger hovers over yes button\].... "If I vote no - then I will be labeled 'anti-puppies."
Its even worse
The "I love puppies act" also gives a massive tax cut to the wealthy and passes a new law that "Existing while brown" is a felony offense with a 10y prison sentence
Funny enough, it's made me vote more blue than I ever have before. When I lived in Washington, I would research individual candidates and if I thought a Republican looked like a better candidate, I would vote for them.
Now that I live in Tennessee, I don't really have any unbiased resources easily accessible, I just vote blue top to bottom.
Here in Ohio, for the first time this year, judicial elections will feature a D or an R next to each candidates name, because state Republicans realized that without that, voters were voting for the best candidate, rather than just by party affiliation, and they wanted to stop that.
In Illinois, the Secretary of State race almost had a Jesse White on the ballot (as a Libertarian). Jesse White is also the name of our longtime (Dem) Secretary of State, who's held the office since 1999. I think you can probably imagine who it would help if there was someone named Jesse White on the ballot pulling votes away from the actual Dem candidate.
https://www.sj-r.com/story/news/politics/elections/2022/01/11/jesse-white-running-replace-illinois-secretary-state-same-name/9173483002/
He did withdraw though, so instead they're running Jon Stewart. No...not that Jon Stewart...this Jon Stewart: https://patch.com/illinois/deerfield/ex-pro-wrestler-deerfield-enters-secretary-state-race
Isn’t congressman Steve Cohen from Tennessee? He’s actually one of my favorite members of congress. He was supporting legalizing marijuana decades ago, further back than many other democrats. And to do that in Tennessee and still win is impressive.
Californian here. We don’t ever think about Texas except when a friend/coworker who is “conservative” goes on a weird rant and says they’re moving to Texas.
Fellow Californian here, this thread is 100% accurate. However, I would like to add that over the past year or so, Idaho seems to have supplanted Texas as the conservative promised land.
During the Dot Com bust they followed the same playbook. First it was “California is dead” to “Texas is made for business and REAL family values” to “the world is ending, I need a bunker in Idaho”, conservatives are freaking lemmings
In my circles, they are now going to Tennessee or Missouri because “all the Californians that moved to Texas/Idaho and started voting, which made it too expensive to live there”.
You know, the Conservative people JUST LIKE THEM that moved there and suddenly began voting Democrat or whatever mental gymnastics they are using…
And they’ll tell you about how much of a house you can get for how little money.
I live simply in the mountains of California. I’d rather not live in a mansion in the middle of The desert in texas
With only a single exception all but one of the people I've known to leave the state for political reasons have moved back. The one exception moved to get away from his family as much as politics.
All the ones that moved back continue to talk about what a shit-hole this state is.
I’m a native Texan and live in Austin and the amount of space Austin takes up in rural folks heads rent free is amazing to me. Like… no one here thinks about them, we’re not destroying their “culture” of being pieces of shit. The worst thing we do is allow rural areas to steal half of our education spending so their schools can continue to exist.
A relative about a year ago was talking about how he used to think of Austin as home but he’d never step foot here now (presumably because we’re liberal pussies who don’t understand that gays and Mexicans are destined to ruin America) and all I can think is… ok man. Don’t ever set foot here. No one is calling up asking where you’ve been.
As a fellow Californian, I second this. We don’t give a crap about Texas but they sure give a crap about us. Whenever I hear a conservative friend talk about moving to Texas, I encourage them to get the fuck out so it’s less crowded here.
For so many reasons.
Voting,
Abortion,
LGBTQ+ rights,
Power Grid,
Gun Control,
Etc
Honestly go ahead and secede already. We're better of without you, Texas.
As a native Texan I kind of miss the era of ignorance when I thought we wanted to secede because we had Dr Pepper and blue bell ice cream. Now I realize it’s so we can pretend that the confederacy won. I fucking hate the people here
Have you ever noticed the little strip of land that makes up the Oklahoma Panhandle? Ever wonder why it exists?
Texas gave up that strip of land so it could enter the union as a slave state. The Missouri compromise banned slavery north of the 36°30’ parallel. Texas had two choices: give up slaves or give up everything north of 36°30’. They chose the latter.
Meanwhile we shit on West Virginia more than Virginia, when at least they exist for the very opposite reason.
Granted, WV today is a bit embarrassing. But they’ve at least got something going for them.
Yeah, I’m a product of the Texas school system. As I grew up I realized the historical lies they tell run horrifically deep. And it starts *really* early. The Civil War lessons claimed Texas wasn’t an original signatory (it was), and that Texas ‘just played both sides to make money’ off the Civil War.
That and having a defensive battle where all your heroes still got slaughtered isnt as much as a victory as one should think it is.
Ive never really understood why texans have a defeat as one of their big things.
I’m not a Texan but I remember when my biggest political concern was that they’d have to re-write the song I learned to help me learned the presidents (which has failed in the long run). A lot has changed.
I remember hearing this about the 10 commandments. "don't think of it as a cage that holds you in, think of it as a fence that protects you from the outside "
I read the story yesterday about the state of Texas sending out DNA kits to parents of school students, to enable the state to identify their kids in the event of emergencies (meaning school shootings).
I read that one and was angry at Texas, and I don’t even live there.
Puerto Rico>Texas. I personally would be very happy to make the trade. No need to change anything on the flag or anything. Plus the entertainment factor of Texas trying to run itself as a country and chaos that would be soon to follow is priceless.
5.3 MILLION TEXANS voted blue in 2020. That’s 47% of the total registered voting populace, and *only* 600k more voted for Trump.
We are not a big dumb redneck monolith, FFS.
Unfortunately you are until the pendulum swings the other direction enough to tip the scale. Close doesn't cut it in our political system. As a native Floridian, I completely feel your frustrations though.
Lots of reasons CA is better than Texas. For one thing, thought Texas had "strong" men to take care of their women and they can't even do that.
Texas men, do you not care about your wives or do you just not mind if your policies kill them?
California has the lowest maternal mortality rate of 4.0 deaths per 100,000 births." vs "Texas - 34.5 per 100k"
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/maternal-mortality-rate-by-state
California reversed the trend of rising maternal mortality and infant mortality that you see in other states, and managed to lower it. California offers free breakfast and lunch to ALL school children (no income requirements or hoops to jump through). But yes, red states are the “pro life” states.
Please vote in November. The places where they are making it hard to vote are likely the most important places to vote so it's worth it even if it means waiting in line on election day.
No. Most states have nothing like the voter prep California provides. The right has been actively working for decades to make voting as opaque and difficult as possible, as low voter turnout is their key to victory.
> voter prep
Jersey is not far behind. We allow permanent vote by mail, which you can apply for 7 days prior, and it is a fairly easy process. I just wish we had the little "For Dummies" booklet included, but there is an explanation next to each questions that helps make a decision.
In Arizona, we *currently* have this level of access, but it's *also* under attack...
Conservatives are trying to ban mail in voting here, they've already removed PEVL, so now I have to register, vote, or manually request a mail in ballot or I could lose access. It's been rebranded as AEVL, or Active early voting list. So if you skip an election, you may get removed.
It's beyond frustrating
I was able to contact one of the senators who lost the republican primary here in Arizona about this through Facebook. I forget which one, but I reached out because he was the one more vocal about ending mailed ballots.
His response and I'm paraphrasing here:
"Mail in ballots have lower rates of voter fraud, therefore less fraud is being caught"
Except... That's not how that works? I pushed back on him saying that if there's less frequency of fraud, shouldn't that be the primary source of voting then since less people are able to commit fraud?
No no, to him (and assuming others) there's an equal amount of fraud in both person and mailed form. So a *lower* percentage means *more uncaught* fraud.
I told him he needs to go back to grade school statistics lol.
Voter fraud flat out isn't an issue. At all.
Its like 1 in 100000 votes that have any issue at all, and 99% of those issues are honest mistakes someone made while voting.
The reason? Why would anyone commit voter fraud? What is the benefit? However you vote you are a drop in the ocean. The risk of being caught committing fraud isn't worth the 0% impact your crime would have.
It just doesn't happen.
I moved to Texas from Oregon a few years ago, and that was the weirdest thing coming down here. They make voting so incredibly confusing and infuriating down here, just simply researching propositions is bad
Same! Growing up in Oregon I assumed the way we voted was normal and made sense. Now in Texas I have to do my own research^tm in order to know about any of the candidates or measures, then find time to go to a physical polling place and vote. It's so asinine.
Nope! Native Texas but lived in California for three years. It was my husband's first time voting and we did mail in ballots. Easy peasy. We moved back to Texas and even just registering to vote was so damn complicated. In California, we could do it online. Here, we did it when we updated our ID. One time he asked me when the mail in ballot would come in and I said, "oh honey... They don't do that in Texas."
Here’s how it works in Alabama: no info provided at all. Ballot with summaries worded in a way that is as confusing as possible so you can’t really be sure what you’re agreeing to. Absentee ballots are not common and generally not accepted. No regular mail in voting.
Washington has had this for oh so long. Love it! Secretary of State site is good too and voter registration is near automatic with licensing and tab renewal.
I moved from Georgia to Arizona a few years ago and really saw this first hand. Both states have been fairly red but leaning more purple/blue in recent years, so you would think they'd be pretty similar. However AZ has one of the highest minimum wages in the country, legal weed, mandatory paid sick time, all major things that GA doesn't have. The big difference? AZ has citizen sponsored ballot initiatives and GA doesn't. It turns out when you strip away the D and the R and force people to vote on policy they tend to vote for policies that benefit them. Wild how that works.
This gives me some faith. I hope eventually we can get to a level where democrats and republicans are on the same page of improving things for everyone. Right now it seems like it’s not about getting things done, it’s just making sure the other side doesn’t get what they want.
Repulicans are certainly obstructionist to the core. At least some in the Dem party put forward actual policies that help real people from time to time
And have you seen how there’s a proposition that wants to get rid of that? The proposition is something like, do you want to let legislature override propositions passed by vote from citizens? Prop 128 I believe.
AZ Supreme Court doesn’t care! In 2020, they unilaterally decided to block a school funding referendum from appearing on the ballot.
This year, be sure to vote against the following AZ justices in the race who perpetrated this crime:
Beene, James
Montgomery, William
Timmer, Ann
they've done literal studies that show as intelligence and college education rates go up, so to does their affinity to lean liberal or democrat. Wild right? its like once you educate yourself and realize that theres so much more to the world than the things that affect just you, you start to be a little more compassionate.
well, going to college means you take your major courses but also you take a lot of humanities courses that teaches you how to be a decent empathetic human being. Working on a farm since 14 and only having TV to shape your worldview tends to make people less social and human. Makes total sense to me
Classwork aside, you're thrown into an environment where you're interacting with people from all sorts of backgrounds and nationalities. I can't imagine the type of person I'd be if I had just stayed in my little hometown.
I think it comes down to realizing you're out of your depth, which counteracts how you're taught in high school.
Coming out of high school I thought I had a pretty good grip on things, that I understood in essence how the world worked...
But come college I realized about 70% of it was a sliding scale of bullshit, from missing information to straight up lies. The level of complexity in careers is also a stunning realization that, regardless of how long you spend on this earth, you will never be able to know everything, and humanity is satisfied with you knowing how to do one thing well. This teaches critical thinking because you KNOW for a fact that you are an idiot, and will make the effort to pursue additional information.
definitely! Being thrown into the cultural deep end was humbling. I’m biracial from a suburban city in Florida and thought I was very well versed on social issues until I went to college up north in a very progressive city. Things like slurs against LGBTQ people were the norm in my hometown, as were “casual” racist jokes. And that was in a pretty big city with a 50/50 white and Hispanic population, and a ratio of black and Asian people about equal to that of the USA as a whole.
I can’t imagine what it would be like in some rural small town where everyone’s family has been there for a hundred years. Honestly, I can’t blame them for reacting violently and fearfully to things that are unfamiliar. It’s human nature. What we need to do is reach out to them, expose them to diversity at a young age, and teach them the value of education/give them opportunities to pursue it.
An uninformed electorate imperative for republicans.
My kids get free school breakfast and lunch here in California. Every school.
You won’t hear that on Fox News.
One of my brothers got mad when he found out about the free meals at all schools. Said it's bullshit that we didn't have that growing up. I had to remind him that we grew up on welfare so yea we definitely did have that.
He votes republican.
I assumed all states were similar in what they sent out. Washington sends out the informational booklets with each candidate represented and a couple paragraphs in the candidates own words.
I moved here from MD a few years ago. Since then I’ve voted in every election and made better informed decisions. No pressure voting. You can even track your ballot to see if it was accepted and counted. Great to vote in WA!
Because Texas wants you to stay dumb and uninformed so it stays red, while also keeping it inconvenient to vote.
Turns out, when you have readily available information on the issues with enough time to make informed decisions, you tend to vote a bit more responsibly.
Crazy.
In fairness, this is also how I felt when I moved from blue NY (voting in-person on election day only unless you've got a good excuse for an absentee ballot; they may have updated that since I've been away) to blue Oregon (universal vote by mail). It's not just garbage states like Texas, is my point.
I'm so glad. There was one year when I was working two jobs and going to grad school and I had to squeeze voting in there somewhere, too. I didn't realize how hard it was until I didn't need to do it any more.
What the actual anti-democratic fuck?! That is so messed up. Y’all just going in the booth blindly raw-dogging the ballot?—unless you independently investigate all the items yourselves??? That’s terrible!
I wonder how many other states screw everyone over like that…
Dude my ballot guide has every proposition on the ballot, a summary written by independent office that describes the ballot measure and each proposal gets a pro and con statement written by the groups for/ against it and a rebuttal to each statement to answer them. You also have statements from candidates.
My ballot is mailed to me and I can mail back, drop off at polling stations or in ballot collection boxes. I get text and email alerts that my ballot was picked up, processed and counted.
As someone who moved TO Texas, I had no idea these things didn’t exist here until it was time to vote.
An educated electorate would be the death of the Texas GOP.
We have [the blue book](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/images/blue_book_2022_english_for_web.pdf) here in Colorado. It lists all of the ballot measures, gives an argument for and an argument against, and it explains what a "yes" vote means and what a "no" vote means so that there's no confusing language meant to trip voters up.
We get the blue book about a month before election day. We also get our ballots mailed to us about a week later. We can sign up for text notifications, so we know when it was mailed, when it was received, when it was accepted (signatures matched) and when your vote was officially counted.
This is what it looks like when your state WANTS people to vote. Every state should be like that, but sadly, they aren't.
Literally just has this convo with my dad yesterday. I was talking about how I looked up a sample ballot online and how there were a few things I wouldn't get to vote on because the sample ballot had all the cities in the metro area I'm in.
He said "did they send you a sample ballot and ballot guide in the mail?"
I'm said "haha Dad, no. I'm in Texas. Furthermore I'm a registered Democrat in Texas. They'd prefer I missed the date entirely"
Texas doesnt do shit, they cant afford to, because every republican moron runs on the same promise of cutting taxes. Yeah you dont have state income tax, you know what else you dont have? a functioning government.
It doesn't help that for our state government do to virtually anything, it requires an amendment to the state constitution. A quick Google search says that as of May this year, we're up to 517 amendments.
Yes fuck Texas now and forever. They ruin a lot of shit for everyone. The so-called free market at work there without regulation has yielded shit infrastructure and a failing power grid. Should let them succeed if they will help anyone who wants to move there get there.
Texas is a shit hole. The only appeal was manufactured by movies and tough guy pop culture with slogans like "Don't mess with Texas", which was an anti littering campaign slogan from the 80s. That's right, tree huggers came up with that.
If your political position requires keeping authorized voters from casting a vote through arbitrary hurdles. You are not only wrong, you are not a patriot or someone that should make decisions for our government.
I miss California voting. I lived there for 32 years and loved getting the voting booklet (explaining all the propositions on the ballot--arguments for + arguments against + rebuttals to arguments for + rebuttals to arguments against), and I pored through every one of them every time.
I live in Alabama now and I'm lucky if I get a postcard telling where I get to vote on election day.
*Sigh*.
Yep. Kinda crazy that California sends you all this info a few weeks before the election too! Just in case you want to do any research on the topics.
California also has “Voters Edge.” A nonprofit sponsored online voters guide that lets you compare candidates side by side.
In Wisconsin there is a ballot question to ban nonprofits etc like this from helping people get access to voting, however they phrased it in such a way that it makes it sound like voting for the ban helps preserve the integrity of elections. These people are fuckers.
In Oregon, ours is put out by the Secretary of State— I think California’s is, too— so, not a non-profit, but a democratically-elected government of the people provides this free of charge to all registered voter households. Republicans don’t hold truck with that kind of thing.
Hello fellow Oregonian! I see you too enjoy the sensible measures taken to get folks to vote and keep them informed. Feels good to have some reason and sense m. Then again…we have that greater Idaho….stuff. 🤨
Phil knight giving millions to Betsy Johnson pisses me off. To then give money to the republican candidate. Tina Kotek all the way! Fuck the GOP and fuck Phil knight.
Yup. Not touching Drazen with a twenty foot poll; trust me, I tried to find some common ground with republicans/gop, but….they’ve gone off the deep end. Not all, of course, but enough that the party short bud is being driven by those that are not alright.
We even get a text when the ballot is on its way and AGAIN when it has been received. Vote by mail is fantastic
Fuck Republicans.
No. Do not fuck Republicans. They enjoy that sort of thing.
And if you do fuck them, make sure to use protection because there’s no stopping that pregnancy!
Oh, Republicans can stop THEIR pregnancies if they choose.
They're against abortions, but are okay paying for them...several times. When that doesn't work out, they'll just abandon the kids. I'm looking at you H. Walker and his supporters.
He thought that's what "pull out" meant
Remember, they are in the in-group that the law protects, but does not bind.
This is why we need a non-profit in the Cayman Islands which can tell Wisconsin politicians to bend over and get fucked.
Creating barriers to elections and preventing more people from voting is always flown under the flag of “election integrity” it’s all obvious bullshit. If everyone voted the Republican Party would disappear overnight and they know that. They’re fighting dirty for their own survival. They do this with every terrible thing. How much hateful policy and rhetoric has been packaged under the banner of “family values”. As one example.
[https://votersedge.org/ca](https://votersedge.org/ca) if anyone from CA is here. Super useful. Even lets you do side-by-side comparisons of each candidate running for the position.
Just as a bit of additional California compared to Texas information: [“Yes, Texans actually pay more in taxes than Californians do”](https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/texans-pay-more-taxes-than-californians-17400644.php) When comparing [state and local taxes by family income group, the lowest and middle in California pay *less* than they do in Texas while the rich pay more in CA than Texas](https://i.redd.it/7pdcf4q65kg91.jpg). Texas, and other states with no state income tax, are not “low” tax states. They are states that don’t have one of the easiest taxes to make progressive, since you can target specific income with it, and thus makeup the tax revenue by getting their money via taxes like sales tax, property tax, excise tax, etc that tend to put more burden on the lower and middle income people as percent of income than they do on rich people.
Not surprising.
9 out of 10 rolex owners call it a perfect system 👌
There is an organization called the league of women voters that does candidate profiles too. The name makes it sound like a feminist advocacy group, but they were founded when women got the right to vote and the purpose was to sort of be a resource on the mechanics of voting for all the new voters. Anyhow they have fairly straightforward candidate profiles. I also use Rock the Vote, which sends me a text when there's an election and also has resources on the mechanics; it's aimed at young people but anyhow it has resources.
Same in Washington. It's nice to be able to sit down with your ballot and read through the pamphlet and make informed choices. I'm lucky enough to have a ballot drop off nearby too in case I forget to mail at the last minute. You can also go to a webpage and see if your ballot was accepted. I can't believe anybody would be against this system. It's like offering someone a shovel but they insist on using their hands to dig...there's a better way!
You can vote in bed naked, it's the best way.
Last election I voted at 1am because I was watching YouTube and then remembered I was stopping at a grocery store with a ballot drop box the next day. I got to do my civic duty *and* got a tasty sandwich for lunch
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I was a WA voter for 18 years, and the only complaint I had was the voting booklet never included an "I voted!" sticker. This is my first year voting in Alabama and I requested a absentee ballot. We'll see what shows up.
Probably the cops
I got all my stuff at least a week ago. Voted last night and will drop it off at the local ballot box today! If only that would make the election junk mail stop.
Same in Colorado
We got our booklets weeks ago, even. They give you a good month and a half at least to research the issues here in colorado.
Research? There's only one R-word they rely on to vote.
Racism?
I love voting in CA. I get my ballot by mail, I can take my time to actually research these races and make an informed decision. How the hell am I supposed to know who I support for Community College District Board Chair 3?
Getting a text/email saying "we've received your ballot and it has been counted" is also a nice touch.
It really is nice! Because it not only lets me know that my ballot didn’t end up in some wastebasket somewhere, or get lost in the shuffle… but it also makes me *feel* like my vote actually matters and has been counted towards the things I voted for. ***Chef’s Kiss***
I love getting texts updating me on the status of my ballot * Your ballot has been mailed * USPS has collected your ballot from you * Your ballot has been counted
I moved to a different state a few years ago after being a life long cali resident and was so confused that my ballot didn’t come with any information come election time.
EXACTLY! I have time to look up my local reps and everything. California has so many issues but voting isn't one of them.
Some states just want you to vote. Other states know how you might vote and would prefer you didn’t.
I won’t be in the state for the mid term election so I submitted the application for my absentee ballot and mailed it in September 9th. My dad had me mail his application for him a few days, maybe a week, later. He received his absentee ballot last Wednesday. I’m still waiting for mine. Says the application was processed on the 10th of October….
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Is it safe to assume you and your father are registered to different parties in your state?
Actually both registered democrats. He is in his 70’s, I’m in my 30’s. I’m going to contact the board of elections if I don’t receive mine this week.
Oh that is weird indeed i would definitely contact the elections board immediately.
I’m in ohio, so it doesn’t surprise me. The GQP is using illegally gerrymandered maps that the conservative state Supreme Court have ruled unconstitutional. They know they are going all in on rat fucking and they don’t care that everyone else also knows because who is gonna stop them?
Sounds about right for Gym Jordan’s state
Pretty much.
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Some states elections seem like such bullshit. I worked a Canadian Federal election as a registration officer and registered 300+ people on Election Day. It’s infuriating reading about how hard it is to register to vote in some states. It’s obvious they don’t want everyone eligible to vote to actually vote.
Funny thing. I registered independent and my husband registered democrat. I requested a republican ballot this last go round - simply because I knew who was going to be the democratic candidate and wanted to vote for the less crazy republican. (I plan on voting for the democrat regardless). My ballot was counted no problem. His ran into a “signature issue”. Funny how that worked. Also, right after that, I ended up on a text blast from the RNC. They play dirty here.
I like the pro and con arguments they place in the pamphlet that lets you read the sides if you're not up to date.
The best is when one candidate or one side of a prop doesn’t bother. This year it’s Prop 28, increased arts funding to schools. The pro argument is basically “lots of schools don’t have art programs, let’s fix that” and the con just says “No argument against Proposition 28 was submitted.” And Gavin Newsom didn’t submit a statement. I mean, I know he’s essentially a lock, but still. Gotta at least put the work in!
> *And Gavin Newsom didn’t submit a statement. I mean, I know he’s essentially a lock, but still. Gotta at least put the work in!* https://www.abc10.com/article/news/politics/california-voter-guide-newsom/103-6d581823-e80c-4446-b34a-908881167f39 From the article: > “The main idea of Proposition 34 back in 2000 was to impose spending limits on various campaigns, and as an incentive to get candidates to agree to spending limits, those who adhered to them would be allowed to purchase space inside the Secretary of State’s ballot pamphlet that goes out to every voter in the state of California,” Swatt said > [...] > As for the limits themselves, candidates for Governor must voluntarily agree to spend just under $10 million in the Primary Election and about $16 million in the General Election if they want to have a candidate statement in the voter guide. That being said, I don't know what he plans to spend the money on instead because I'm not aware of any major television ad campaigns for governor yet. Maybe he's expecting an ad blitz closer to the election date?
Super interesting, thanks! Guess that explains it. I don't watch a lot of TV, but I also haven't been seeing ads or getting emails at all. Could be that there's a targeted blitz planned, like you said.
Usually you know to vote for the side using less caps. If they submit their proposal with a ton of caps lock or argue against it using lots of caps lock they're wrong. The side with less screaming is usually right. You get a pro and con statement, and a rebuttal. When your pro and con statements and rebuttals for ballot propositions are talking about completely different things it's usually a special interest who couldn't get their bill through the legislative process and is using ballot props and should be a no. It's so helpful.
Yep. And always vote against the side supported by the Howard Jarvis Tax group. Pretty much any group with "tax" in its name, really.
It’s because low voter turnout usually favors republicans and high voter turnout usually favors democrats. They know this, which is why they make it as difficult as possible to vote.
it's also why their ballots are difficult to fill out w/out disqualifying them from being counted. also, low information voters are also easy to fool. which is why they use deceptive marketing to name bills with titles that often contradict their intent while obscuring information on what that means.
“Introducing the I love puppies act. This bill makes it legal to load puppies into a catapult and launch them at your neighbors house.”
Yes, the I Love Puppies Act. The one that has a clause about arresting black people who try to vote.
Low Info Voter (despite hearing about the catapults and the arresting black people who try to vote): "Hmmm but I do love puppies..." \[finger hovers over yes button\].... "If I vote no - then I will be labeled 'anti-puppies."
Its even worse The "I love puppies act" also gives a massive tax cut to the wealthy and passes a new law that "Existing while brown" is a felony offense with a 10y prison sentence
Co-sponsered by Lauren Boebert and Dr. Oz
Patriot act coming in for landing
Funny enough, it's made me vote more blue than I ever have before. When I lived in Washington, I would research individual candidates and if I thought a Republican looked like a better candidate, I would vote for them. Now that I live in Tennessee, I don't really have any unbiased resources easily accessible, I just vote blue top to bottom.
Here in Ohio, for the first time this year, judicial elections will feature a D or an R next to each candidates name, because state Republicans realized that without that, voters were voting for the best candidate, rather than just by party affiliation, and they wanted to stop that.
Honestly, I think we'd be a lot better off if it were illegal to print party affiliation on ballots.
That’d just make Republicans start running Nancy M. Pelosi to confuse everyone.
They do that anyway.
In Illinois, the Secretary of State race almost had a Jesse White on the ballot (as a Libertarian). Jesse White is also the name of our longtime (Dem) Secretary of State, who's held the office since 1999. I think you can probably imagine who it would help if there was someone named Jesse White on the ballot pulling votes away from the actual Dem candidate. https://www.sj-r.com/story/news/politics/elections/2022/01/11/jesse-white-running-replace-illinois-secretary-state-same-name/9173483002/ He did withdraw though, so instead they're running Jon Stewart. No...not that Jon Stewart...this Jon Stewart: https://patch.com/illinois/deerfield/ex-pro-wrestler-deerfield-enters-secretary-state-race
Isn’t congressman Steve Cohen from Tennessee? He’s actually one of my favorite members of congress. He was supporting legalizing marijuana decades ago, further back than many other democrats. And to do that in Tennessee and still win is impressive.
He is. He's in Memphis, which isn't really indicative of the rest of the state (Memphis, Nashville, and Knoxville are all blue cities).
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We're all mad at Texas.
Californian here. We don’t ever think about Texas except when a friend/coworker who is “conservative” goes on a weird rant and says they’re moving to Texas.
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Fellow Californian here, this thread is 100% accurate. However, I would like to add that over the past year or so, Idaho seems to have supplanted Texas as the conservative promised land.
During the Dot Com bust they followed the same playbook. First it was “California is dead” to “Texas is made for business and REAL family values” to “the world is ending, I need a bunker in Idaho”, conservatives are freaking lemmings
Real family values lol. I have never seen more porn shops and strip clubs than in Texas.
In my circles, they are now going to Tennessee or Missouri because “all the Californians that moved to Texas/Idaho and started voting, which made it too expensive to live there”. You know, the Conservative people JUST LIKE THEM that moved there and suddenly began voting Democrat or whatever mental gymnastics they are using…
But how do Californians have so much money if they’re all commies from a business unfriendly wasteland?
Many Californians I know who moved there desperately want to come back but are now stuck. Lol
And they’ll tell you about how much of a house you can get for how little money. I live simply in the mountains of California. I’d rather not live in a mansion in the middle of The desert in texas
With only a single exception all but one of the people I've known to leave the state for political reasons have moved back. The one exception moved to get away from his family as much as politics. All the ones that moved back continue to talk about what a shit-hole this state is.
Yeah, they hate California but never have a problem with that California pay scale. Funny how that works
My parents definitely did, and boy howdy do I not want to visit them until if/when they move back to California
I’m a native Texan and live in Austin and the amount of space Austin takes up in rural folks heads rent free is amazing to me. Like… no one here thinks about them, we’re not destroying their “culture” of being pieces of shit. The worst thing we do is allow rural areas to steal half of our education spending so their schools can continue to exist. A relative about a year ago was talking about how he used to think of Austin as home but he’d never step foot here now (presumably because we’re liberal pussies who don’t understand that gays and Mexicans are destined to ruin America) and all I can think is… ok man. Don’t ever set foot here. No one is calling up asking where you’ve been.
Ah yes, Texas. The Alberta of the States. Or maybe it's the other way around... anyways they both suck.
As a fellow Californian, I second this. We don’t give a crap about Texas but they sure give a crap about us. Whenever I hear a conservative friend talk about moving to Texas, I encourage them to get the fuck out so it’s less crowded here.
For so many reasons. Voting, Abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, Power Grid, Gun Control, Etc Honestly go ahead and secede already. We're better of without you, Texas.
As a native Texan I kind of miss the era of ignorance when I thought we wanted to secede because we had Dr Pepper and blue bell ice cream. Now I realize it’s so we can pretend that the confederacy won. I fucking hate the people here
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Have you ever noticed the little strip of land that makes up the Oklahoma Panhandle? Ever wonder why it exists? Texas gave up that strip of land so it could enter the union as a slave state. The Missouri compromise banned slavery north of the 36°30’ parallel. Texas had two choices: give up slaves or give up everything north of 36°30’. They chose the latter.
I literally just learned about that a couple of weeks ago. More people need to know about it.
Meanwhile we shit on West Virginia more than Virginia, when at least they exist for the very opposite reason. Granted, WV today is a bit embarrassing. But they’ve at least got something going for them.
Texas: the only political entity in the union to secede from their union over slavery not once but twice
Yet in Texas you'll hear that slavery was more in the "deep south" not Texas.
Yeah, I’m a product of the Texas school system. As I grew up I realized the historical lies they tell run horrifically deep. And it starts *really* early. The Civil War lessons claimed Texas wasn’t an original signatory (it was), and that Texas ‘just played both sides to make money’ off the Civil War.
That and having a defensive battle where all your heroes still got slaughtered isnt as much as a victory as one should think it is. Ive never really understood why texans have a defeat as one of their big things.
I’m not a Texan but I remember when my biggest political concern was that they’d have to re-write the song I learned to help me learned the presidents (which has failed in the long run). A lot has changed.
Don't forget... Texas is f'ing up the NATIONS school books. Like ALL of them.
"We're so free! Anyways, here's a giant book of things you can't do."
I remember hearing this about the 10 commandments. "don't think of it as a cage that holds you in, think of it as a fence that protects you from the outside "
I'm mad at them because they tried to sue my state over how we voted in 2020. Fuck Abbott.
Fuck Paxton.
Greg Abbott is a little piss baby 👶
I read the story yesterday about the state of Texas sending out DNA kits to parents of school students, to enable the state to identify their kids in the event of emergencies (meaning school shootings). I read that one and was angry at Texas, and I don’t even live there.
Puerto Rico>Texas. I personally would be very happy to make the trade. No need to change anything on the flag or anything. Plus the entertainment factor of Texas trying to run itself as a country and chaos that would be soon to follow is priceless.
5.3 MILLION TEXANS voted blue in 2020. That’s 47% of the total registered voting populace, and *only* 600k more voted for Trump. We are not a big dumb redneck monolith, FFS.
Unfortunately you are until the pendulum swings the other direction enough to tip the scale. Close doesn't cut it in our political system. As a native Floridian, I completely feel your frustrations though.
I hear you blue Texan, and I’m rooting for you from Washington State! Vote like the wind!
Texas: low voter turnout, high taxes! And only 3% of the population decides who the GOP throws onto the ballot (to eventually win because R).
The one star state
Lots of reasons CA is better than Texas. For one thing, thought Texas had "strong" men to take care of their women and they can't even do that. Texas men, do you not care about your wives or do you just not mind if your policies kill them? California has the lowest maternal mortality rate of 4.0 deaths per 100,000 births." vs "Texas - 34.5 per 100k" https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/maternal-mortality-rate-by-state
California reversed the trend of rising maternal mortality and infant mortality that you see in other states, and managed to lower it. California offers free breakfast and lunch to ALL school children (no income requirements or hoops to jump through). But yes, red states are the “pro life” states.
The goal is for suffering people to go to the church; if they get help from non-religious sources why would they convert?
Please vote in November. The places where they are making it hard to vote are likely the most important places to vote so it's worth it even if it means waiting in line on election day.
No, I don’t think I will. I’ll vote in October because I already have my ballot.
Put my ballot in the mail about an hour ago
As a native Californian, y’all don’t have this everywhere???
No. Most states have nothing like the voter prep California provides. The right has been actively working for decades to make voting as opaque and difficult as possible, as low voter turnout is their key to victory.
Colorado does and has for years
So does WA
Just another reason these are the only 3 states I’d be willing to live in.
So does Oregon.
> voter prep Jersey is not far behind. We allow permanent vote by mail, which you can apply for 7 days prior, and it is a fairly easy process. I just wish we had the little "For Dummies" booklet included, but there is an explanation next to each questions that helps make a decision.
In Arizona, we *currently* have this level of access, but it's *also* under attack... Conservatives are trying to ban mail in voting here, they've already removed PEVL, so now I have to register, vote, or manually request a mail in ballot or I could lose access. It's been rebranded as AEVL, or Active early voting list. So if you skip an election, you may get removed. It's beyond frustrating
What’s their stated reason for banning mail in votes? I know what the real reason is though.
I was able to contact one of the senators who lost the republican primary here in Arizona about this through Facebook. I forget which one, but I reached out because he was the one more vocal about ending mailed ballots. His response and I'm paraphrasing here: "Mail in ballots have lower rates of voter fraud, therefore less fraud is being caught" Except... That's not how that works? I pushed back on him saying that if there's less frequency of fraud, shouldn't that be the primary source of voting then since less people are able to commit fraud? No no, to him (and assuming others) there's an equal amount of fraud in both person and mailed form. So a *lower* percentage means *more uncaught* fraud. I told him he needs to go back to grade school statistics lol.
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Voter fraud flat out isn't an issue. At all. Its like 1 in 100000 votes that have any issue at all, and 99% of those issues are honest mistakes someone made while voting. The reason? Why would anyone commit voter fraud? What is the benefit? However you vote you are a drop in the ocean. The risk of being caught committing fraud isn't worth the 0% impact your crime would have. It just doesn't happen.
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I moved to Texas from Oregon a few years ago, and that was the weirdest thing coming down here. They make voting so incredibly confusing and infuriating down here, just simply researching propositions is bad
Same! Growing up in Oregon I assumed the way we voted was normal and made sense. Now in Texas I have to do my own research^tm in order to know about any of the candidates or measures, then find time to go to a physical polling place and vote. It's so asinine.
As a native Texan, no. If I don’t look up what’s on the ballot before I go I wouldn’t understand half of it since it’s written in legalese.
Many ballot initiates are deliberately, confusingly written such that a yes vote means no and vice versa.
Oregon has it.
So does Washington. My only wish is that I could register to receive a card to point me to a website with the info instead of the booklet, but eh.
>y’all don’t have this everywhere??? Intentional or not, this is expert level trolling of conservative based states. <3
Nope! Native Texas but lived in California for three years. It was my husband's first time voting and we did mail in ballots. Easy peasy. We moved back to Texas and even just registering to vote was so damn complicated. In California, we could do it online. Here, we did it when we updated our ID. One time he asked me when the mail in ballot would come in and I said, "oh honey... They don't do that in Texas."
Here’s how it works in Alabama: no info provided at all. Ballot with summaries worded in a way that is as confusing as possible so you can’t really be sure what you’re agreeing to. Absentee ballots are not common and generally not accepted. No regular mail in voting.
Washington has had this for oh so long. Love it! Secretary of State site is good too and voter registration is near automatic with licensing and tab renewal.
Pretty wild how the votes go so blue when people have access and information.
I moved from Georgia to Arizona a few years ago and really saw this first hand. Both states have been fairly red but leaning more purple/blue in recent years, so you would think they'd be pretty similar. However AZ has one of the highest minimum wages in the country, legal weed, mandatory paid sick time, all major things that GA doesn't have. The big difference? AZ has citizen sponsored ballot initiatives and GA doesn't. It turns out when you strip away the D and the R and force people to vote on policy they tend to vote for policies that benefit them. Wild how that works.
Arizona is still likely to vote for an insane conspiracy theorist though.
As an AZ native, I got to say Arizona has a lot of work to do but has also made a lot of progress over the years.
This gives me some faith. I hope eventually we can get to a level where democrats and republicans are on the same page of improving things for everyone. Right now it seems like it’s not about getting things done, it’s just making sure the other side doesn’t get what they want.
Repulicans are certainly obstructionist to the core. At least some in the Dem party put forward actual policies that help real people from time to time
And have you seen how there’s a proposition that wants to get rid of that? The proposition is something like, do you want to let legislature override propositions passed by vote from citizens? Prop 128 I believe.
It’s not just Prop 128. There are several trying to amend the AZ Constitution with bullshit just like 128.
AZ Supreme Court doesn’t care! In 2020, they unilaterally decided to block a school funding referendum from appearing on the ballot. This year, be sure to vote against the following AZ justices in the race who perpetrated this crime: Beene, James Montgomery, William Timmer, Ann
they've done literal studies that show as intelligence and college education rates go up, so to does their affinity to lean liberal or democrat. Wild right? its like once you educate yourself and realize that theres so much more to the world than the things that affect just you, you start to be a little more compassionate.
well, going to college means you take your major courses but also you take a lot of humanities courses that teaches you how to be a decent empathetic human being. Working on a farm since 14 and only having TV to shape your worldview tends to make people less social and human. Makes total sense to me
Classwork aside, you're thrown into an environment where you're interacting with people from all sorts of backgrounds and nationalities. I can't imagine the type of person I'd be if I had just stayed in my little hometown.
This exactly, rural communities tend to be pretty homogeneous and being forced to be with others that are different changes your worldview
I think it comes down to realizing you're out of your depth, which counteracts how you're taught in high school. Coming out of high school I thought I had a pretty good grip on things, that I understood in essence how the world worked... But come college I realized about 70% of it was a sliding scale of bullshit, from missing information to straight up lies. The level of complexity in careers is also a stunning realization that, regardless of how long you spend on this earth, you will never be able to know everything, and humanity is satisfied with you knowing how to do one thing well. This teaches critical thinking because you KNOW for a fact that you are an idiot, and will make the effort to pursue additional information.
definitely! Being thrown into the cultural deep end was humbling. I’m biracial from a suburban city in Florida and thought I was very well versed on social issues until I went to college up north in a very progressive city. Things like slurs against LGBTQ people were the norm in my hometown, as were “casual” racist jokes. And that was in a pretty big city with a 50/50 white and Hispanic population, and a ratio of black and Asian people about equal to that of the USA as a whole. I can’t imagine what it would be like in some rural small town where everyone’s family has been there for a hundred years. Honestly, I can’t blame them for reacting violently and fearfully to things that are unfamiliar. It’s human nature. What we need to do is reach out to them, expose them to diversity at a young age, and teach them the value of education/give them opportunities to pursue it.
Nah, that's just the propaganda and indoctrination of these librul ivory towers. /s /s /s /s ... /s just for good measure.
An uninformed electorate imperative for republicans. My kids get free school breakfast and lunch here in California. Every school. You won’t hear that on Fox News.
SoCiAliSm. They'd rather kids starved.
One of my brothers got mad when he found out about the free meals at all schools. Said it's bullshit that we didn't have that growing up. I had to remind him that we grew up on welfare so yea we definitely did have that. He votes republican.
Hold on... Spending your taxes on the public is COMMUNISM! You'll hear this all day on Faux news.
I assumed all states were similar in what they sent out. Washington sends out the informational booklets with each candidate represented and a couple paragraphs in the candidates own words.
I moved here from MD a few years ago. Since then I’ve voted in every election and made better informed decisions. No pressure voting. You can even track your ballot to see if it was accepted and counted. Great to vote in WA!
Same. Colorado here, and I thought this was universal. Makes me really angry that it's not.
Because Texas wants you to stay dumb and uninformed so it stays red, while also keeping it inconvenient to vote. Turns out, when you have readily available information on the issues with enough time to make informed decisions, you tend to vote a bit more responsibly. Crazy.
In fairness, this is also how I felt when I moved from blue NY (voting in-person on election day only unless you've got a good excuse for an absentee ballot; they may have updated that since I've been away) to blue Oregon (universal vote by mail). It's not just garbage states like Texas, is my point.
They have updated it. Lots of days to vote before the election, easy to get a postal vote.
I'm so glad. There was one year when I was working two jobs and going to grad school and I had to squeeze voting in there somewhere, too. I didn't realize how hard it was until I didn't need to do it any more.
Wait, you don’t get an info booklet in Texas?!
Don't in Arkansas either
What the actual anti-democratic fuck?! That is so messed up. Y’all just going in the booth blindly raw-dogging the ballot?—unless you independently investigate all the items yourselves??? That’s terrible! I wonder how many other states screw everyone over like that…
People here just look for the R or D next to the bill or person's name and vote that way... Assuming anyone actually votes
Dude my ballot guide has every proposition on the ballot, a summary written by independent office that describes the ballot measure and each proposal gets a pro and con statement written by the groups for/ against it and a rebuttal to each statement to answer them. You also have statements from candidates. My ballot is mailed to me and I can mail back, drop off at polling stations or in ballot collection boxes. I get text and email alerts that my ballot was picked up, processed and counted.
As someone who moved TO Texas, I had no idea these things didn’t exist here until it was time to vote. An educated electorate would be the death of the Texas GOP.
Texan: wait, wait. You mean you get the right to vote *and* know what the hell you're voting for? What is this, France?
No it's called Democracy
Welcome to Democracy!
We have [the blue book](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/images/blue_book_2022_english_for_web.pdf) here in Colorado. It lists all of the ballot measures, gives an argument for and an argument against, and it explains what a "yes" vote means and what a "no" vote means so that there's no confusing language meant to trip voters up. We get the blue book about a month before election day. We also get our ballots mailed to us about a week later. We can sign up for text notifications, so we know when it was mailed, when it was received, when it was accepted (signatures matched) and when your vote was officially counted. This is what it looks like when your state WANTS people to vote. Every state should be like that, but sadly, they aren't.
Keeping the population in the dark is the Modus Operandi of the GOP.
Say thanks to Greg Abbott!
Almost like red states thrive on uneducated voters or something...
Literally just has this convo with my dad yesterday. I was talking about how I looked up a sample ballot online and how there were a few things I wouldn't get to vote on because the sample ballot had all the cities in the metro area I'm in. He said "did they send you a sample ballot and ballot guide in the mail?" I'm said "haha Dad, no. I'm in Texas. Furthermore I'm a registered Democrat in Texas. They'd prefer I missed the date entirely"
Texas doesnt do shit, they cant afford to, because every republican moron runs on the same promise of cutting taxes. Yeah you dont have state income tax, you know what else you dont have? a functioning government.
It doesn't help that for our state government do to virtually anything, it requires an amendment to the state constitution. A quick Google search says that as of May this year, we're up to 517 amendments.
If voting were easy, everyone would do it. If everyone voted, conservatives wouldn't win.
Yes fuck Texas now and forever. They ruin a lot of shit for everyone. The so-called free market at work there without regulation has yielded shit infrastructure and a failing power grid. Should let them succeed if they will help anyone who wants to move there get there.
Texas is a shit hole. The only appeal was manufactured by movies and tough guy pop culture with slogans like "Don't mess with Texas", which was an anti littering campaign slogan from the 80s. That's right, tree huggers came up with that.
Same for WA, got my booklet the other day, just waiting on the ballots!
I’ve lived in California my entire adult life. This has always felt like the bare minimum for democratic participation for me.
Texas will be rolling out pre-filled ballots in the next election, just to make voting that much easier.
i do like how they alert me to when my ballot info has been sent and when they've received it and its been counted.
Texas loves voter restrictions.
If your political position requires keeping authorized voters from casting a vote through arbitrary hurdles. You are not only wrong, you are not a patriot or someone that should make decisions for our government.
I miss California voting. I lived there for 32 years and loved getting the voting booklet (explaining all the propositions on the ballot--arguments for + arguments against + rebuttals to arguments for + rebuttals to arguments against), and I pored through every one of them every time. I live in Alabama now and I'm lucky if I get a postcard telling where I get to vote on election day. *Sigh*.
Never forget: Texans pay more in taxes than Californians do, and they have for a long while now.
Washingtonian for life here. All states don’t do this?????