Throwback Thursday - Voting in the Post Sandy World

This blog post is from November 6, 2012.

This past week, we commemorated the fourth anniversary of what we now call Superstorm Sandy.  Fortunately, our area of upstate New York was not hard hit, but many parts of downstate New York were not so luck.

Now, four years later, we are again electing a President, the House of Representatives, 1/3 of the Senate and also various local officials.  We are all fatigued.  We are tired of all the dirty politics, both national and local.  We wish this election season would go away and leave us alone.

The post Sandy world seems like it is a million miles away.  But it is well to remember that this election is one of the most important of the last four years.  If we could vote after Sandy, we can vote now.

Day 3 of NaBloPoMo.

Voting in the Post Sandy World

Today, in the United States, it is election day.  We are electing a President, the House of Representatives, 1/3 of the Senate and also various local officials.

This is your choice today: vote or don't vote.  But for many in the Hurricane Sandy zone, voting is going to be just another burden on top of trying to get to work, trying to find a place with heat, and trying to find gas for your car or generator.

If you vote, you are joining people like my mother in law, who was away from her home for nearly a week due to Hurricane Sandy.  When I spoke to her Saturday, the thing uppermost on her mind was - not when her power would be restored (it was, shortly after I spoke to her) but if she would be able to vote.

I assured her she would, but to call her Board of Elections to find out if her polling place had changed.

People here in states that allow early voting were standing on long lines back in October to exercise their privlege.  People in Hurricane Sandy-affected areas today are going to go to a lot of trouble to vote.  A cousin who had to be out of town today voted by absentee ballot.


Haven't made up your mind yet?  Not an excuse.  My suggestion: don't vote based on one issue.  Examine your future carefully.  You are voting for both a future you can imagine and a future you can't.  A future that now includes the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, and if we will learn our lesson.

Vote for the candidates that best express the future you dream of. 

Governors Cuomo and Christie (Democrat and Republican) have joined in a common effort to make voting easier for their citizens.  Quoting from a news report:

" Gov. Andrew Cuomo has agreed to issue an executive order that will allow displaced voters to cast ballots by affidavit at any polling site they can reach Tuesday.
The order will permit voters to sign affidavits that they're legally registered to vote in the presidential and state races and cast ballots at any open polling site, even those outside their neighborhoods.
But they won't be able to vote for state legislative candidates unless the polling place is within the proper legislative district.
New Jersey is allowing voters to use provisional ballots at any polling site"

Decisions on the fly,to cope with the conditions we now face.  That is true leadership.  Look for that quality in your candidate.

So now, if you are in the United States, make your country proud. Get out and vote.  And, a special thanks if you were impacted by Sandy. You are participating in history. Be proud.

It does matter.