Notes from the week of 4/10/2020.

I have little to say that of any significance, except this: I hope you will take the time to vote in the upcoming election… by mail, at an early voting site, or (if you can do so safely) at a polling location on November 3rd.

I urge you to take the time to review each candidate and ballot question thoroughly, to ask questions of credible experts and of your community regarding the implications of your votes (there are many thoughtful, dedicated people out there who are eager to help you… and some less-than-reputable people who will work to mislead you, wearing the face of allies so that you choose in their favor and not your own), and to follow through with the delivery of your ballot.

In the state of Nevada, you can track the journey of your ballot through a digital tool called BallotTrax. You can make your voting plan at IWillVote.com.

I will not preach to you about who you should vote for or why you and I should share the same opinion. I will not “guilt” you into voting, either, as I understand there are many of you who feel for any number of reasons (many of them valid) that doing so is an exercise in your exploitation, a misuse of the energy you allocate to various forms of labor, or something else entirely.

What I will say is this: voting is one of many tactics that can (and, in my estimation of my own life, should) be deployed toward advancing positive conditions for more people. It is not the first or the last tactic available to us, but it is an important one.

You may find that your votes do not align perfectly (or even all that closely at all) with what you would like to see transpire in the world. I find that to be the case often. All the same, as I make my calculations about how to affect positive change, I vote comfortably, knowing that I’ll employ this one tactic today and that, ideally, it buys me the space and time I need to make more powerful and impactful moves tomorrow.

If that is cold comfort to you, here’s another: the most fervent of your oppressors will use every possible tool available to them to see their agenda come to light. They will make any compromise in the name of their ideology, calculating their advances in the short and the long term. It is prudent to understand this, and to proceed accordingly.

Voter Resources

BallotTrax – Track the journey of your ballot.

IWillVote.com – Register to vote and make a plan.

Ballotpedia – Research ballot questions, candidate histories/voting records, and more.

ISideWith – Take a quiz to calculate the candidates with which you are most closely aligned.