Today is General Election Day in the U.S.

This is an off-off year election, generally known for LOW voter turnout, unfortunately.

This is an off-off year election, generally known for LOW voter turnout, unfortunately.

This is one of my occasional political posts. I will not tolerate hateful or conspiracy-fueled responses. Thoughtful comments are welcome. Thank you.

My husband and I live in Detroit Michigan, and we are very lucky to live in a state that makes it as easy as possible for everyone to vote: before or on Election Day.

Today, this year in Detroit, we are voting for a mayoral candidate, for City Council seats, and for a few ballot proposals. It is a very short ballot, but unfortunately, too many people do not realize that the more local the election, the more directly it affects you. There are also local elections in other jurisdictions in Michigan this year. We’ll be lucky if we have 20% voter turnout numbers.

In 2015, the people of our state voted to allow “no-excuse” absentee voting, and since then, hubby and I have voted absentee. The first time we applied for our absentee ballots, we had to show ID, and since then, we have been able to request an absentee ballot to be sent to our home for every election. An absentee ballot is only sent to those who request one. We do not have to show ID every time, because our information was verified the first time and nothing has changed since then. We are the same people living in the same house.

I have never EVER missed voting in any election since I was 18 years old. I am old enough to remember when my father allowed me to “pull the lever” (which I could barely reach) to register his vote for John F. Kennedy for president. Who remembers those “old-school” voting machines with the curtains that closed while you voted, and then opened again when you pulled the big lever to register the votes that you made by pulling down a little lever by your chosen candidates’ names? When the curtain opened, all of the little levers moved back up and you could actually “hear” your vote being anonymously counted.

Now, we receive our paper ballots at home. The ballots are bar-coded and are only mailed if we have requested them. We received ours in the mail around the end of September. Here in Detroit, the largest but not the only city in Wayne County, we can vote early in several locations for about 2–3 weeks before the actual election day. There are also several “dropboxes” all over the city where people can deposit their completed absentee ballots 24/7 until 8 pm on Election Day.

I have only been voting absentee for the past few years. Our polling place is almost walking distance from our home, and we actually enjoyed voting in person along with our friends and neighbors. Like our parents, who also never missed an election, our jobs allowed us the time to vote after work. Those issues are not true for everyone; many people have difficulty making it to the polling location during the times they are open for many reasons.

However, I have suffered severely from sciatica since 2017, and standing and/or walking for more than a few minutes is often very painful for me. Additionally, we like being able to sit at the kitchen table to discuss the ballot choices (especially the long ones) while filling in the little circles. So we really like having the choice to vote absentee, especially as we watched people in other states stand for HOURS in line to vote.

The nearest dropbox to our house is also relatively close; we’ve even ridden our bikes to the dropbox a couple of times. This year, we dropped our ballots off on the Sunday before election day. The polling location was open on that last Sunday before the election, and we saw a lot of people voting in person as we gave our ballots to an official election worker who was outside with a crate to collect our sealed, signed, and bar-coded ballots.

The next day, we received a text message that told us that our ballot had been received and would be counted on Election Day. Once our ballot is counted, we will receive another text message to that effect. That is because of the modern barcode tracking system.

The whole point of this Medium story is to express my appreciation for the ease of voting in my state because our Secretary of State works hard to make voting as easy as possible for everyone. Contrary to the “opinions” of some in one particular political party, “voter fraud” is almost non-existent, and the few verifiable instances of voter fraud were committed by supporters of that political party.

These days, with the changes in modern society, expecting ONLY the votes cast on the actual election day, and discounting ballots dropped off early or mailed in time is as ridiculous a notion as waiting for the iceman to bring a block of ice to your house for your “icebox.” We’ve moved far past those days.

Unfortunately, there are some here in Michigan who belong to a particular political party who want to enact strict voting restrictions based on untrue and widely debunked “voter fraud” allegations from the 2020 election.

I for one, along with our Secretary of State, am going to fight those proposed voter suppression initiatives as hard as I can. Everyone should be able to vote when, where, and how they choose until the polls close on Election Day. Voting prior to election day does not make someone “less American;” working to keep people whose votes may not go “your way” from easily exercising their right to vote is what is “un-American.”

I “voted early” and I am proud that I did. I never EVER miss an election and I never will, and I expect my ability to vote to be as easy as possible and I expect my vote to be counted.

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