Trick or Treat, and Vote, This Halloween
Hey, trick or treaters! if you’re in New York City, you can vote today and get a cool Halloween-themed voting sticker!
If you can’t vote today because you’ve got witch business to take care of, no worries — early voting runs through Sunday, November 6. Your last chance to vote is regular old Election Day on Tuesday, November 8, but if you go early, the crowds are much less frightening.
I’ve been busy all month working on getting out the vote by writing postcards to voters, calling voters, and knocking on doors. You can participate in a lot of GOTV activities from home, and I have options for every day through Election Day in the latest edition of my weekly activism newsletter.
You can also find all the information you need to make your own voting plans in that same link.
Voting in every election is important, but this one is especially crucial if you believe in everyone’s right to choose. If you’re not about to tell a woman or anyone with a uterus to have a kid against their will, vote Democrat up and down the ticket to prevent draconian abortion bans. At the federal level, Republicans are ready to pursue a national abortion ban. (And after that, they’re coming for contraception.) At the local level, Republicans in state legislatures are pushing state abortion bans that could take effect as soon as next year. In Pennsylvania, for instance, the Republican-controlled state legislature has already voted once in favor of an abortion ban. If the right wing stays in power there, there will be another legislative vote in favor of the ban in 2023. The second consecutive vote will then send the ban to the people for their vote. Let’s not let it get that far, Pennsylvania!
If you’ve previously bought into old-fashioned and cynical notions of your vote “not counting,” my activist friend Robin Alperstein explained in a Facebook post last night that every vote truly matters, even if you’re in a “blue” or “red” state. (Basically, nothing is ever as monolithic as it seems.) I put Robin’s post into this Google doc so you can read it too. If you have more time to spare — or just miss seeing/hearing me — you can revisit the lYouTube video I did for the 2018 midterm elections.
If you’re going to the NYC Halloween parade today, I’ll be with the Witches Vote contingent spreading the message that “Voting Is Magic.”