10 Days

Reminder: Show your good citizenry! Check out this post for the details of my Be a Good Citizen project. Use this link to complete a short questionnaire on your good citizen-ing. The deadline for submissions has been extended until December 1. I'm like the Oprah of rewarding good citizenship: "You get a piece of original art! And you get a piece of original art!"

What's fun about writing a sort of weekly blog is that I can look back at a fixed point in time and see what I was doing at that time. Memories may fade, but the internet is forever. While I don't remember all the details of exactly what I was doing 10 days before the 2016 election, the Island reminds me of these three posts in the weeks leading up to the election:

• Down a the Rock N Roll Club - I went to the Green Day concert at the 9:30 Club. Remember concerts?
• Twenty-Two Questions - In which I pose 22 questions about how horrible/ridiculous the 2016 election cycle was. How I wish all of you had listened to 2016 me and voted very differently, or you know, voted at all. 
• Lazy Movie Weekend: Pumpkin's Guide to Halloween Movies - Yes, dear Pumpkin was still with us, being all judge-y and helpful with recommending her top ten Halloween movies. Keely would love to tell you his, but he's too busy staring at the same spot on ceiling. Obviously, we have a ghost. 

That 22 Questions post! Some of those questions are still very relevant today. It's odd to think that so much has changed in four years, but so much has stayed the same. The first question was, "When did the GOP get so weak?" and that's followed by several additional questions where I ask how members, particularly someone like John McCain (who was still alive), could align themselves with someone like the 45. It's like I was trying to tell y'all something and some of you didn't listen. Or you did listen, but you were like, "But her emails" or "I can't  vote for a lady who looks that stunning in a white pant suit. What will the neighbors think?"

We're 10 days from the election. Over 40 million people have voted early, and according to The Washington Post, we've exceeded the numbers of people voting early in 2016 (114%). In some states, more people have voted early than voted total in 2016. People are waiting hours to vote in some places. While on the surface this is patriotic and awesome, it also points to a larger issue we have in this country: voter suppression. Long lines don't just means record numbers of people voting. They also mean there "may be" (are) inadequate numbers of polling locations open or not enough poll workers to support the numbers. All polling locations have put safety protocols in place because of the pandemic, which means it takes more time between voters. For a democracy, we have a complex and poorly managed voting system that is, as I told someone earlier this week, designed to keep voters away. That we have record numbers of people voting early is a testament to the power of voting, and I hope this means we can finally have a conversation about making voting fair and equitable. 

Obviously, we're still in the middle of the a global pandemic. This is a huge difference between 10 days before the 2016 election and now. Let's not be cute, we're still in the middle of this in the US. We have no national testing plan. We had the highest rate of new cases since July this past week, with a record number of cases being recorded in one day. The 45 and members of his staff and family all have tested positive, and still nothing changes. People are still being assholes about wearing masks in public. Rather than keep people away from the polls, there's seems to be an energy around voting that I haven't felt since Obama's first run. People, and it's across the political spectrum, want to be heard. The days of letting someone else's vote matter more than yours are done. That people are a waiting in long lines, in the middle of a pandemic, illustrates this clearly. 

Which leads me to the last thing that is different from 2016 to 2020: my feelings going into this election. In 2016, I volunteered for the Clinton campaign. I wasn't the most active volunteer, but I did a lot locally, and worked on Election Day as a poll place greeter. I was excited. I was hopeful (not Obama level hopeful, but hopeful). I wore my Hillary shirt and helped answer questions about the ballot for people going into vote. I posed for a photo with one of my state representatives, and made an appearance on his Twitter feed that day. I went home and watched the returns, like I've done every election that I can remember. It was not a good night. I woke up hoping it was all a bad dream, but it wasn't. And here we are, four years later in a very bad place. 

So as I go into this election in 10 days, I'm more reserved. The pandemic and everything that has happened since May, has heightened my feeling of existential dread, something I didn't feel in 2016. My role is different this year. As an election officer it's my job to make sure people can have a safe voting experience. I'm nervous, not because it's overwhelming to think that my job is to make sure you get to vote, but because I really don't know what's going to happen on Election Day. Are people going to be violent? Are people going to wear masks and not complain about it? Can we really offer a safe election day to everyone? What happens when we find out who won?  

I feel small glimmers of hope, not big hope like in 2008 or 2012 or 2016, but little hope. I've scaled my level of hope to my expectations about 2020 as a whole. As I wrote back in August, which feels like a century ago, I really want to go back to a time when I can write about movies or ask my cat questions or discuss my inevitable march toward being an old lady who yells at children to get off the lawn, but we're not there yet. I'd love to spend time detailing my foray into making an Election Cake, but I wonder if that's still too frivolous for where we are today.  

The next 10 days are going to be difficult on many levels. Do yourself a favor and reduce the number of hours of news you watch. Pumpkin recommended 10 movies back in 2016; watch those instead (Keely would like to add that if you can find it watch The Stand (the 1994 version) or The Monster Squad). If you haven't voted yet, make a plan to do so, either early or on Election Day. Check on your family and friends, and make sure they've voted or are planning to. Be nice to your polling place volunteers; we're there to ensure you can safely vote - don't be an asshole. And please, whatever you do, don't write in anyone on the ballot. Don't waste your vote. 

The Island will be back after Election Day!