Published October 6, 2020

While friends of mine in parts of the South deal with the difficulties of trying to cast a ballot seven years after the gutting of the Voting Rights Act and amid targeted efforts to suppress the vote, I moved one step closer today to being able to vote early as always here in the Pacific Northwest. The voters’ pamphlet arrived in the mail.

It’s 128 pages from cover to cover, and has information about every race, ballot measure and candidate. It also clearly explains voting rules here in Washington, where we’ve voted by mail or collection box for years.

As I wrote late last month, I will probably get my ballot by Saturday, October 17, and make a special voting day out of a scheduled day off work. I plan to drop my ballot into my neighborhood’s collection box that evening, well before the November 3 deadline. That leaves county elections officials plenty of time to contact me if there’s a question about my ballot. I can track my ballot’s journey online and confirm when it’s been received.

I’ll have more to say about voter suppression before this election wraps up, but I wanted to express how grateful I am to live in a state that gets it, that has worked to give every eligible voter an opportunity to participate in elections. I do not take it for granted, because it’s clear there are many people in power intent on doing the opposite.

I love that this is National Voter Education Week. I love that Secretary of State Kim Wyman (a Republican, I might add) manages an office that has a website filled with details on how it all works here.

This is an exciting day, and I wanted to share it with you!