Sneak Preview of "Count My Vote - A Citizen's Guide to Voting" by Steven Rosenfeld

After a few weeks, he can check with the County Clerk to make sure that his registration was received and processed. Then, he needs to request an application for an absentee ballot. He needs an absentee ballot because he will be doing a program abroad for the coming academic year, starting October 12. (If his flight were even 24 hours later, he could have gone into our Village Hall and done early voting.) After he applies for an absentee ballot, it will be mailed to him. Depending on when the ballots become available (September 25, at the earliest), Michael’s ballot will either be sent to our home address or his overseas address. At that point, he will finally vote by filling out the ballot and sending it back to the States.

FedEx has recently teamed up with the Overseas Vote Foundation to expedite delivery of what could be as many as 6 million votes from overseas. If he were in Hong Kong, China, New Zealand or the Philippines, this novel service would be free. Virtually everywhere else in the world, it will cost $23.00. Express Your Vote will operate between September 15 and October 29. Those using the service will be able to track and trace their ballots’ progress online. Those opting out of the FedEx option will have to resort to the traditional method of popping their ballots in the mail in time to be counted.

My husband, Rafi, and I have lived in the same home for more than ten election cycles and have never missed an opportunity to vote. Nevertheless, due to the high incidence of purging of legal voters, we are taking nothing for granted. We will be calling the County Clerk’s office in the next few weeks to confirm that our names are still on the voting rolls. Rosenfeld advises every voter to do the same, sooner rather than later, to avoid the pre-election crush. An Election Official Directory organized by state can be found at the OVF website.

These are the kind of steps that people have to take to ensure they can vote in November. The book covers these details and is a very useful resource even for voters who have no plans to leave the country on Election Day.

And now, back to the author interview.

***

What about the timing of this book’s publication?

It's coming out now so that people can fix any problems with their voter registrations. Your family situation is a perfect example of that. If you tried to figure out what each of your kids should do on Sept. 15, you’d have quite a scramble. By looking at your situation in July, you can verify your registration info, easily contact local election officials, and figure out what can be done to vote for the fall. In more than half the country, the state registration closes a month before the election. So now is the time for not just would-be voters, but anyone working on campaigns, to double-check that they or their family members or community are going to be able to vote. If this book came out in September, it would be less helpful.

In sum, it really is a voter education book, which says here are the possible hurdles, and problems that surfaced in the primaries – and here’s what most people can do to get past those hurdles. A high turnout will offset most of the nasty things that can happen in close elections. The voter suppression and fraudulent vote count tactics only work in close elections where the other side tries to shave a few percentage points off the vote here and there. That’s why my focus, and my timing, is to get this out early.

***

Rosenfeld believes knowledge is power. His guide serves as a sort of election first-aid kit. Not enough voting machines, long lines, challenges at the polls, confused poll workers, statewide computerized voter databases that scramble voters’ names making them ineligible to vote – are but a few of the myriad of problems that have occurred in recent elections. They will undoubtedly recur this November. Rosenfeld offers concrete help.

Voters need to know what they can and cannot control. You can control your ability to register properly; verify your registration with local election officials; know what ID is required; and find out in advance the location of your polling place. You cannot control how well election machinery works or whether there will be a problem with the vote count. (p. 15)

This quote reminded me of AA’s official prayer:

God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to know the difference.

While mental health might dictate a more Zen approach to current elections, Rosenfeld has given us actual tools to address some of the barriers that could keep us from voting in the first place. AlterNet has generally been considered to be left-of-center. Ironically, this publication has the potential for the widest possible audience since all of us, regardless of our politics, cherish the right to vote. Rosenfeld makes it more likely that we will be able to exercise that right.

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