Get Out And Vote!

I subscribe to “Best of True”, where subscribers receive a story from the archives of This is True that he picks out and thinks is extra good each day. The story that came up this morning seemed extra good to me, and I felt like it needed a soundtrack.

It seems that back in 2000 when it was getting close to election day in the states, Margie Knake was in the hospital preparing for heart surgery. In fact, her heart surgery was scheduled for election day. When they came to get her, she was gone. They found a note that said she had gone to vote. Sure enough, the folks at her polling station said an elderly woman with IV tubes in her arm had shuffled in to vote. She came back, the surgery went ahead, maybe a few of her nurses needed help with their own hearts from the scare, but her operation went off without a hitch. So…if she can vote, you can get out and vote too!

We got out and voted today in our provincial election. We went and used the machine, and once the poor guy figured out how to work it, it went off without a hitch. The staff were all super nice and helpful there. It’s just too bad the place where the accessible voting machine lives is out in the middle of nowhere, in a giant plaza with minimal sidewalks. If people are relying on transit, they’re going to have a hell of a time accessing the place. The guy helping us with the machine says the machine isn’t well-used. See nowhere, middle of, and he *should* know why. Also, even poll folks are uninformed and try to tell people the machines are available at the advance polls. That means that people may call ahead, get told the wrong information, go to the poll, find there is no machine, and just vote the crappy way since they’re there anyway. I’m just persistent and made the person I spoke to double check.

So…before June 2, please go and vote in whatever way works for you. I heard they’re predicting a low voter turnout. Please prove them wrong.