Make Sure Your Vote Counts!
As we approach the 2018 elections on November 6, be sure to follow the laws and procedures of the state where you are registered to vote. If you are not registered to vote, DO SO NOW, don't procrastinate! Call your local election office, or check for their website online, so that you know EXACTLY what you need to do to be properly registered to vote. You can also check with your state's election office. "Typically" a state's chief election officer is that state's "secretary of state," and I'm sure they all have websites. Remember, in the United States, election laws are set by the individual states, the District of Columbia, or U.S. territories (like Puerto Rico or Guam, for example). For more information to help you register to vote, or for other election questions, here is the link to the site for the "League of Women Voters:" http://www.vote411.org/
If you have already registered to vote, it is a very good idea to check your registration, even if you just voted in an election within the last few months, and even if your information has not changed. Some states have ways of doing this online, but just as with registering, call or check online for ways to verify or update your voter registration. Remember, even if you move just a block or two away from the address shown on your voter registration information, it might change the ward or some voting district, so keep your information up to date. Further, there are occasional mistakes by election offices, and I'm not meaning "deliberate mistakes," but there are potentially those kinds of mistakes too, so you don't want to show up to vote, only to be told that your name is not on the voter rolls, or that you are listed in another precinct or whatever. TAKE NOTHING FOR GRANTED! REMEMBER, the Trump regime in Washington DC, along with their participants and collaborators on the state and local level, will do ANYTHING to disqualify you from voting, or to see that your vote does not count. There have always been charges leveled at both major political parties about election shenanigans, BUT we have never had the threat to our democracy in modern times that we face now. CHECK YOUR REGISTRATION, DON'T WAIT, DO IT NOW!
If you are in a state that uses early voting by mail, and that is your preferred method to vote, be sure to follow your state's regulations for requesting a ballot, and then follow proper procedure for filling out and mailing in your completed ballot. This is perhaps the most important election in the history of this country. If Democrats do no make sufficient gains to rein in Donald Trump as president, you may not get another chance to vote. Earlier this year in Wisconsin, Republican governor, Scott Walker, faced with Republican losses to Democrats in special elections to fill vacant elective offices, tried to stop such elections from taking place! Thankfully, a judge, who was appointed by Walker, ordered the governor to hold the elections. And let's not EVER forget Mitch McConnell, the most EVIL man to EVER serve in the United States Senate, refusing to hold a vote on Barack Obama's selection for the Supreme Court in 2016. That appointment was instead held for Donald Trump. Now Trump will appoint another judge. If you want to live in about the 1400s (maybe even 1400 BC), you'll love all of these Trump picks, and there will not be any legal thing you can do about them. You could well lose your rights very soon.
BE SURE YOUR VOTE WILL COUNT!
WORD HISTORY:
Ballot-This word, closely related to "ball" (round object),^ goes back to Indo European "bhel," which had the notion, "to swell, to blow or puff up/out." This gave Old Germanic "balluz," "a swollen or bloated object;" thus, "a round object, a ball." This was borrowed by Latin and then emerging Italian from the Germanic dialect "Lombardic" as "palla," but also more properly as, "balla," both meaning, "ball." This gave Italian "pallotta/ballotta," diminutive forms meaning, "small ball." The ball was used in secret voting, often with white colored balls registering as a "yes," and black balls registering as a "no;" thus the term, "blackballing someone." English borrowed the word from Italian in the first half of the 1500s, and when paper ballots came into existence, the word "ballot" simply was transferred to the new voting method.
^ "Ball" is an original English word from its Germanic roots.
If you have already registered to vote, it is a very good idea to check your registration, even if you just voted in an election within the last few months, and even if your information has not changed. Some states have ways of doing this online, but just as with registering, call or check online for ways to verify or update your voter registration. Remember, even if you move just a block or two away from the address shown on your voter registration information, it might change the ward or some voting district, so keep your information up to date. Further, there are occasional mistakes by election offices, and I'm not meaning "deliberate mistakes," but there are potentially those kinds of mistakes too, so you don't want to show up to vote, only to be told that your name is not on the voter rolls, or that you are listed in another precinct or whatever. TAKE NOTHING FOR GRANTED! REMEMBER, the Trump regime in Washington DC, along with their participants and collaborators on the state and local level, will do ANYTHING to disqualify you from voting, or to see that your vote does not count. There have always been charges leveled at both major political parties about election shenanigans, BUT we have never had the threat to our democracy in modern times that we face now. CHECK YOUR REGISTRATION, DON'T WAIT, DO IT NOW!
If you are in a state that uses early voting by mail, and that is your preferred method to vote, be sure to follow your state's regulations for requesting a ballot, and then follow proper procedure for filling out and mailing in your completed ballot. This is perhaps the most important election in the history of this country. If Democrats do no make sufficient gains to rein in Donald Trump as president, you may not get another chance to vote. Earlier this year in Wisconsin, Republican governor, Scott Walker, faced with Republican losses to Democrats in special elections to fill vacant elective offices, tried to stop such elections from taking place! Thankfully, a judge, who was appointed by Walker, ordered the governor to hold the elections. And let's not EVER forget Mitch McConnell, the most EVIL man to EVER serve in the United States Senate, refusing to hold a vote on Barack Obama's selection for the Supreme Court in 2016. That appointment was instead held for Donald Trump. Now Trump will appoint another judge. If you want to live in about the 1400s (maybe even 1400 BC), you'll love all of these Trump picks, and there will not be any legal thing you can do about them. You could well lose your rights very soon.
BE SURE YOUR VOTE WILL COUNT!
WORD HISTORY:
Ballot-This word, closely related to "ball" (round object),^ goes back to Indo European "bhel," which had the notion, "to swell, to blow or puff up/out." This gave Old Germanic "balluz," "a swollen or bloated object;" thus, "a round object, a ball." This was borrowed by Latin and then emerging Italian from the Germanic dialect "Lombardic" as "palla," but also more properly as, "balla," both meaning, "ball." This gave Italian "pallotta/ballotta," diminutive forms meaning, "small ball." The ball was used in secret voting, often with white colored balls registering as a "yes," and black balls registering as a "no;" thus the term, "blackballing someone." English borrowed the word from Italian in the first half of the 1500s, and when paper ballots came into existence, the word "ballot" simply was transferred to the new voting method.
^ "Ball" is an original English word from its Germanic roots.
Labels: Donald Trump, election 2018, election laws, English, etymology, Italian, Latin, League of Women Voters, Republicans, Scott Walker, voter registration, voting, voting by mail
posted by Randy at 6:55 PM
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