Tag: Election Day

Extraordinary Claims

That’s Carl Sagan. The guy from whom most of Generation X learned about space. A precursor to Neil deGrasse Tyson if you like. One of Mr. Sagan’s famous quotes is “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

Let’s just say that there’s an election coming up. Party A is running Candidate A. Party B is running Candidate B.

Imagine if you will, that Candidate A claims that Candidate B will, oh, I don’t know, institute a death penalty for jaywalking (notwithstanding that jaywalking in some places can be deadly without judicial action). Wow, that’s pretty extreme. Now you might be having one of several reactions: maybe “wow that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard”; maybe “well it doesn’t surprise me that Party B would run someone with that kind of plan” or “well I always knew something was off about Candidate B”; and just maybe, you think “that’s kind of weird, maybe I should look into that a little further.”

If you thought the last thing, congratulations! You noticed an extraordinary claim and are at least looking for evidence, preferably the extraordinary kind.

You’ve got another week until Election Day. Go ahead and use that extraordinary brain of yours! Find out if Jewish Space Lasers or government hurricane control satellites are real. Learn what political parties and their candidates really think about guns instead of what their opponents claim they think. Take a read through Project 2025. Peek at the actual voting record and positions of your elected officials. Read about the Federal Reserve (from an actual reputable site, please). Learn how many houses sell in your area in a typical month and how many are available right now; come to your own conclusions about why housing costs what it does. Learn what an ectopic pregnancy, and read for just a few minutes about fatal birth defects (ah, you won’t want to spend a lot of time on that because it’s extremely sad and can be upsetting).

You’ll notice I’m not feeding you links. And you know I love links! I hope you’ll spend time on some relatively neutral sites like Wikipedia. When you go to the websites of the political parties, pay attention to what they want and ignore what they claim the other guys want. Don’t pay any attention to celebrities; they’re not running for anything. That includes the people on certain TV channels that claim to present news. If a candidate has a giant gap between what they say and what they do, pay attention to what they do.

When you are done, maybe you’ll be firmly convinced your initial opinion was correct. Maybe you’ll be looking for more information still. And just maybe you’ll have changed your mind about a thing or two. Whatever you decide, remember that what you do on your ballot is your business alone. It doesn’t have to align with your family or the sign in the yard, just with your heart. Whatever you learn, do the right thing.

A few thoughts on Voting

It’s that time of year again! If you are in a state that does early voting like Nevada, get moving! If you are in a state where you must vote on Election Day, make a plan! Just for fun, here’s some actual data on American voters.

This time of year also brings out some perennial ideas about how and when we should vote. Let’s look at a few of them:

Election Day as a National Holiday. Sounds like a great idea, everybody has the day off, everybody can get their butts to the polling place. Clearly this idea was hatched and is supported by people in nice little Monday through Friday jobs who never worked someplace that was open Christmas. This will not help people who work at airports, railroads, hotels, restaurants, firehouses, or hospitals. That includes the 4.2 million Registered Nurses nationwide, a highly educated and largely female block of voters who often work twelve hour shifts. If I were conspiracy minded (I like to think I’m not), I’d suspect this idea is meant to disenfranchise all those people whose jobs can’t shut down for Christmas and Election Day.

Online Voting. I know, you’d think that in a world where I can pay my bills, order almost any legal product online, have news of the world at my fingertips, hold a videoconference with colleagues in other time zones, and make friends on almost any continent, voting online should be a no-brainer. Still, many consider it a “huge risk” with “security concerns.” Really no idea why it’s ok for me to spend thousands of dollars online but not okay to cast one vote. That’s above my pay grade.

Voter ID. Many people think you should have to show valid identification to vote. I’ll support that on two conditions: the state must issue an appropriate ID completely free of charge; the agency issuing those IDs must be open from early morning until 10 at night, at least 6 days a week and preferably seven, with sufficient staffing at all times to handle all applicants in a prompt manner. That way people who work long hours and people with very tight budgets can get their ID. Otherwise, it sure looks like an attempt to make sure only the “right people” can vote.

Early Voting. For the record, we do this in Nevada and I freaking love it. There’s polling places all over town in convenient places like shopping malls and supermarkets, computer linked to prevent voting in more than one location. It helps people with hectic schedules and/or medical needs. Because there’s many locations and the voting load is spread out, there’s rarely a big line to go vote — handy for both convenience and limiting the spread of things like influenza (yes, it’s flu season). Only someone who “wants to control who is able to vote” would possibly be against it.

Vote By Mail and/or Absentee Ballots. Yes, vote by mail has always been a thing for people who physically can’t get to the polling place, either because they are hospitalized, or because they are deployed in our military. Saying no to vote by mail is saying you don’t want our Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen voting. Go on, say it, I dare you. Yes, there are potential security concerns. That doesn’t change the necessity. During the pandemic, Nevada also made it possible for every registered voter to vote by mail. As an added benefit, voters are able to research their candidates and ballot questions well before voting.