Driving Votes: Ralph's Blog

I was at Happy Hour on Friday with some friends after work. We were unwinding from a stressful week. We were trying to keep the conversation light and cheery when someone brought up George W. We all moaned and asked him not to ruin the weekend's beautiful beginning with that subject.
"If he wins in November, the next four years will be twice as bad as the last four," he said. This didn't catch anyone by surprise - I think many of us believe bad situations usually just get worse. My friend continued: "He can't run again. He'll have nothing holding him back. He wants to solidify his legacy."
That stopped all nearby chit chat. Everyone grew quiet and we all looked around the patio at each other. All of us gay men in our late 20's to early 40's. Most of us in committed relationships. Some of us struggling with the end of unemployment benefits. Others worried about pending layoffs (while the employers report increased profits).
What would George W.'s legacy look like? If he didn't care about the election in 2008, didn't care which constituencies he alienated, what would he do? The thought makes me bow my head and stare at my feet. Kinda the way I do at a wake when I'm contemplating what we've lost along with the soul of the departed.
What will losing in November cost us?

When I started this effort I expected to run into racist and classist regulations surrounding voter registration. I was aware of the history of local election laws making it difficult for certain groups to fully participate in this democracy.
As we worked on the first few state packets I was happy to find that, though unorganized and often unhelpful, the local election authorities and regulations weren't blatantly prejudiced against a particular group.
Until today. Today I find out from one of our volunteers that in New Hampshire you must register in person at the local clerks office during normal business hours. The clerk offices aren't open on weekends (except for a single Saturday 10 days before the election). There are a few exceptions ('disability, religious beliefs, military service, or because of temporary absence').
I don't know about you but I usually find it hard to make time to accomplish important errands like picking up a prescription or seeing the doctor. And I have a white-collar, flexible-hours type job. What about the thousands of New Hampshire residents that work 8am to 5pm Monday through Friday? When are they supposed to register?
Given all the attention in 2000 on the election and voter registration process I'm surprised the leaders of New Hampshire haven't corrected this. Do they not think its important or are they worried that if normal working folk can register and vote they may be out of a job?

I went to a friend's birthday party today. He lives in Wallingford in a beautiful house he shares with a very special woman named Shirley. She stepped into her yard today from some errand and found the party had begun. There were almost 20 people in her yard.

We exchanged hellos and then, over seared ahi tuna with wasabi dip, she told me what she had done today. She's a busy, charming lady. One of the items in her list caught my attention but I didn't want to interupt her. When she finished reciting her accomplishments she leaned in close to me and said "I love MoveOn."

I knew immediately I was talking to my kind of woman. We chatted about Bush - his good side (motivates our fellow thinkers) and his bad side (his entire administration and way of doing business). We reminisced about the Supreme Court and the importance of the next election on our legal rights for the next 50 years.

The item in Shirley's list that caught my attention? She woke up early this morning to bake 5 dozen rolls and 2 cakes for a MoveOn bake sale. My fellow DVers went riding around the city last weekend spreading the word about DV and offering support to the bake sales. This weekend they are in Portland testing our state packet. (I'll skip the PR message that talks about how much work we are putting into making it easy for anyone to register voters in a swing
state.) I'm working on putting 4 more packets together over the weekend.

"What are you doing?"

Thanks Shirley.