#Primary Election Day

[dwuerch-blog]

I Know Who Holds Tomorrow

Today, March 5th, is Primary Election Day here in Texas.  I am up and at ‘em to head to my polling location where I’ll be working from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. tonight.  I am stoked.  I can’t begin to convey how patriotic I feel about being a part of this process.    There will be long lines of voters despite the last two weeks of Early Voting opportunities.  Many people will say to us, “Thank you…

[post-grammatic-stress]

I'm an unaffiliated voter in a purple state, in a deep red county, with mail in voting.

I just received a letter that my voter registration has been "rendered inactive" because my mail carrier marked my ballot "undeliverable" for the primary two months ago.

My address has not changed in 11 years. My registration has not changed since 2016. All my other mail has arrived recently. I had double checked my registration that very month, and all was good.

I have to re-register to fucking vote AGAIN. Because my mail carrier, a person I've never met, UNREGISTERED ME.

All this to say: if you live in a state that mails ballots, stay on top of when you're supposed to receive it. If you don't get it, start making phone calls and get it figured out before election day. In my state, you can register to vote day of and still vote in person.

Don't let fuckery of any kind prevent you from voting.

[whenweallvote]

Not sure what kind of primary your state has? 🤔 We’ve got you.

Remember: some states require you to register with a party in order to vote. Register to vote or update your registration at weall.vote/register.

[writing-with-olive]

So as we're heading into the American primaries, now is a super good time to see if you're registered to vote. Remember: even if you've been registered in the past, it's possible you've been removed from the registry without being notified. Go check.

Also, now's a really good time to put into your calendar when the relevant dates are for voting. If you plan on voting for election day, this link lists when that is in your state.

Note that voter ID laws may have changed since last time you voted. This map by ballotpedia shows the requirements by state. These rules may be different in the event that you are showing up to register and vote at the same time.

If you're unhappy with all of the options, remember that voting is not the only form of civic engagement you can engage in - getting engaged in your local community is still very much an option that is on the table and is effective. Voting and community organizing are not mutually exclusive acts. While the presidential race is the most prominent it is not the only race that's happening, and that local races that will affect your life far more directly are also on the ballot. Go vote.

[tomorrowusa]

Nikki Haley suspended her campaign for the GOP presidential nomination months ago and has not campaigned since. But she still got 21.7% of the vote in Tuesday's Republican primary in deep red Indiana. She passed the 30% mark in four Hoosier counties including Marion where Indianapolis is located.

If a fifth of Republicans go out of their way to vote for a non-candidate this late in the race to show their objection to Trump, it doesn't bode well for The Donald in November.

While Indiana should still be considered solid for Trump, the continuing significant showing for Haley could mean trouble for him in toss-up states like Georgia and Pennsylvania.

Former President Donald Trump faced warning signs in the Indiana GOP primary as former Republican rival Nikki Haley received more than 20 percent of the vote despite dropping out of the White House race two months ago. [ ... ] Haley also received more than 26 percent and 18 percent of the GOP primary vote in the key swing states of Michigan and Arizona respectively, amounting to hundreds of thousands of votes. Several polls have indicated that many Haley supporters will not go on to vote for Trump in the 2024 election.

Trump has a problem even if 75% of those Haley voters in GOP primaries decide to hold their noses and vote for Trump in November.

Trump's appointment of anti-abortion fanatics to the US Supreme Court who then overturned Roe v. Wade does not sit well with some pro-choice Republicans.

And those Trump comments about being a "dictator on day one" and "retribution" should horrify anybody concerned about the rule of law.

A Republican former lieutenant governor of toss-up Georgia announced that he's voting for Joe Biden in November.

Former Georgia Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan says he is voting for Biden in November

Mr. Duncan understands that the only way to defeat wannabe dictator Trump is to vote for Biden. Casting a blank ballot, writing in somebody, or voting for an impotent third party will do nothing to protect democracy in 2024. That goes for liberals as well as conservatives.

[deadnightmeat]

𝕭𝖆𝖇𝖞 𝖇𝖑𝖚𝖊𝖘...

[theladyhibiscus]

Enough with the political ads please! 🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢

[shitty-check-please-aus]

do you ever hear a take so rancid that you desperately hope that the person who said that has changed their mind entirely

[187days]

Day Ninety-One

Today was the last day of the semester, which means it was the last day of APGOV. A few of my students brought me gifts and thank you cards, as well as college banners to add to my classroom collection (I pin them below my whiteboard). That was really sweet.

They'd had all semester to find a way to participate in the political process, so today they shared what they'd done and what they learned from it. Some had gone to local board meetings, others to presidential candidates' campaign events, others to issue forums. It was really neat to hear all about their experiences and what they'd learned, and it's a good way to end class because it celebrates the fact that they got out there and got involved- and hopefully will continue to do so! The best thing the eighteen-year-olds said to me was that they were carpooling to their local polling places with their friends to vote for the first time as soon as their classes were over.

It's pretty cool that their last day in my class was the day of the NH primary.

It's a tradition of mine to write a letter to deliver one last lesson and say goodbye to my GOV students, which, somehow, none of them had heard about, so I got to surprise them with them with that. A few read what I'd written right away, a few said they'd cry if they did that, and that probably would have made me cry, too! It's not really goodbye, though, because one of the congressmen who's a longtime friend of the class is coming to visit tomorrow, so these students are going to stick around one more day (with permission from their second semester teachers), along with my new students, to talk to him.

So that'll be fun.

Meantime, in Global Studies, I attempted to teach the same thing I'd taught yesterday, just to the other two sections. I say "attempted" because, while it went totally well in the first section, the fire alarm went off during the second.

Obviously, that was not planned, and now they're a bit behind. I'll get them caught up, though!

[lafcadiosadventures]

🚬😬 it’s voting time.

[rickmaynard]

5-21-24 cartoon. Vote!

[calixcasual]

https://www.instagram.com/p/C39IBlRrsCk/?igsh=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==

[whenweallvote]

In honor of International Day Of Happiness, we’re celebrating what makes us the absolute happiest: VOTERS! 🥰

Shoutout to everyone getting out to vote this primary election season. We LOVE to see it! 🤩

[reasonsforhope]

Kamala Harris just announced that her vice president will be Minnesota governor Tim Walz. Based on the coverage so far I'm really reassured by this decision.

The Washington Post did an obviously great job of making a prepared article for each option, considering how long an article they had up 7 minutes after the announcement.

((Okay technically it's not an official announcement yet it's "according to three people familiar with the pick, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a decision that is not yet public." But listen. I am 99% sure this is a weather balloon. (Meaning: a deliberate leak to gauge reaction.) Because the sheer weakness or incompetence on the part of the Harris campaign that it would take for three people to all confirm that within a few hours hours of each other and the planned announcement it is massive.))

-via The Washington Post, August 6, 2024

Honestly this decision, from everything I've read and can tell, looks like it's brilliant politics.

Important Context: The vice president(ial candidates)'s job in an election is not to be similar to the president. The vice president's job on the ballot is very, very much specifically to be different from the president. Why? So they can cover each others' weaknesses. Especially regionally.

(Sidenote: I feel a bit ridiculous saying this. But genuinely if you want to get a stronger understanding of how US elections really work. Go watch seasons 6 and 7 of The West Wing. Genuinely, a lot of politicians have said - especially back in its day - that that was the most accurate depiction of an election they'd ever seen. Also specifically features an entire arc about a contested Democratic primary convention, so also very good if you're interested in understanding weird nominating convention shenanigans.)

From the article:

"Harris’s choice for a running mate was among the most closely watched decisions of her fledgling campaign, as she sought to bolster the ticket’s prospects for victory in November and rapidly find someone who could be a governing partner. In picking Walz, she has selected a seasoned politician with executive governing experience and signaled the importance of Midwestern battleground states such as Wisconsin and Michigan.

Walz’s foray into politics came later in life: He spent more than two decades as a public school teacher and football coach, and as a member of the Army National Guard, before running for Congress in his 40s. In 2006, he defeated a Republican to win Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District--a rural, conservative area--and won reelection five times before leaving Congress to run for governor.

Walz was first elected governor in 2018 and handily won reelection in 2022. Though little-known outside his state, Walz emerged publicly as one of the earliest names mentioned as a possible running mate for Harris, and in the ensuing days he made the rounds on television as an outspoken surrogate for the vice president...

“These are weird people on the other side. They want to take books away, they want to be in your exam room. … They are bad on foreign policy, they are bad on the environment, they certainly have no health care plan, and they keep talking about the middle-class,” Walz told MSNBC in July. “As I said, a robber baron real estate guy and a venture capitalist trying to tell us they understand who we are? They don’t know who we are.”

Walz also has faced criticism from Republicans that his policies as governor were too liberal, including legalizing recreational marijuana for adults, protecting abortion rights, expanding LGBTQ protections, implementing tuition-free college for low-income Minnesotans and providing free breakfast and lunch for schoolchildren in the state.

But many of those initiatives are broadly popular. Walz also signed an executive order removing the college-degree requirement for 75 percent of Minnesota’s state jobs, a move that garnered bipartisan support and that several other states have also adopted.

“What a monster. Kids are eating and having full bellies, so they can go learn, and women are making their own health-care decisions,” Walz said sarcastically in a July 28 interview with CNN when questioned whether such policies would be fodder for conservative attacks, later adding: “If that’s where they want to label me, I’m more than happy to take the [liberal] label.”

Walz also spoke at a kickoff event in St. Paul for a Democratic canvassing effort, casting Trump as a “bully.”

“Don’t lift these guys up like they’re some kind of heroes. Everybody in this room knows--I know it as a teacher--a bully has no self-confidence. A bully has no strength. They have nothing,” Walz said at the event, sporting a camouflage hunting hat and T-shirt.

Walz has explained that he felt some Democrats’ practice of calling Trump an existential threat to democracy was giving him too much credit, which prompted his decision to denounce the GOP nominee instead as being “weird.”

“I do believe all those things are a real possibility, but it gives him way too much power," Walz said on CNN’s “State of the Union” regarding the Democrats’ rhetoric. “Listen to the guy. He’s talking about Hannibal Lecter, shocking sharks, and just whatever crazy thing pops into his mind.”

If Walz is elected vice president, under state law, Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (D) would assume the governorship for the rest of his term. Minnesota Senate president Bobby Joe Champion, a Democrat, would become lieutenant governor."

-via The Washington Post, August 6, 2024

--

This guy. Sounds like. fucking Moderate swing-state/rural/Midwestern/southern/"heartland"/working class white voter catnip. He sounds like he's also a very smart politician and strong campaigner. And he's apparently genuinely a good guy with a good record, too.

He sounds like he's going to do a really good job of appealing to voters in several of the big deal swing states without being from any of them specifically. Which means it doesn't feel like pandering to one of the states involved (and thereby spurning the others), which is also great.

(Also he was the one who started "weird" @ conservatives and I think we should take that seriously as a very good political instinct/move. Judging in large part by how it has so clearly hit an actual nerve with conservatives like so little else. Also hugely relevant: that post going around about how part of why conservatives are so upset about "weird" is because in the Midwest, "weird" specifically also implies anti-social or harmful behavior.)

Officially feeling more optimistic about Trump not winning in November

[tomorrowusa]

I voted early in the NY presidential primary whose official date is April 2nd.

New York has had early voting since 2019. For various reasons I prefer voting early in person to voting by mail or waiting until Election Day to vote at the regular polling place.

Of course I voted for Joe Biden. Showing support for the leading anti-fascist candidate is important when the presumptive GOP candidate has declared that he would be a "dictator" on day one.

There is no such thing as an unimportant election. Making a lifetime commitment never to miss an election means we'll never have to face unpleasant surprises like the one in November of 2016.

As a reward for braving the sporadic rain, I was treated to a rare NYC rainbow when emerging from the early voting center.

It was more colorful in person. 🌈

I Will Vote

[literaryartisan]

This post is for my fellow USA-ians getting ready to do their taxes and especially folks in California. You have maybe seen another post going around about filing for free instead of paying for software. Absolutely!!! (There are some exceptions of course, but I'm assuming you don't have funky tax situations and are just The Average Filer needing to do a 1040)

If you don't know already, here is what you do for your federal tax: Go to irs.gov Click "File Your Taxes For Free" That next page has some tools to help you find out if you're eligible for free-file and some trusted guided tax software (and also a link to fillable forms, but this post is assuming you want to use the free software) I used TaxAct the past couple years. This is not an endorsement, just one of the options I qualified for and letting you know what I used for the next part of this: State Filing.

None of these free federal tax filing options have let me file my state taxes for free. I vaguely remember being able to do this once, maybe twice in the past, but the majority of the time they have let me file federal for free and then wanted to charge for state. TaxAct, for example, offered to let me "conveniently" file my CA state taxes for a mere $39.99 That's a big chunk of my state return!! SCREW THAT.

This is what you do instead: Complete your (FREE!!) federal tax filing with the software. Opt out of the state tax that they want you to pay for. Make sure you have saved a copy of your completed federal return (this is required for you to keep for your records but you will also need it for the next part).

CALIFORNIA SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS (I'm sorry, but I have never filed taxes in any other state. State taxes vary widely. If you have information on how to file free state taxes in other states please add them in reblogs or notes so other people can find them!)

Go to the Franchise Tax Board website ftb.ca.gov Click on CalFile

Scroll down on the CalFile page to the bottom.

You will need to create an account. The password for your account expires regularly, at least annually, so don't be surprised if you are prompted to create a new password next year. You do need to have previously filed a CA tax return at least once in the past 5 years, so I'm not quite sure what the step is if you're a first-time-filer.

It does not import information from your federal tax filing, so yes the drawback is that you spend some more time putting numbers in a form. But also like, you basically just did this, right? So all of the information you need is at hand, fresh in your mind, and CalFile takes you through it all step-by-step. FOR FREE!!!!!

When you get to the end there's an option to voluntarily contribute part of your refund to a wide variety of state funds. No shade if you want your full refund. This is totally a voluntary choice that I want to talk about for a little bit because I don't know how many people are aware of what it is.

Idk what the status of linking things in tumblr posts is anymore, so I've been avoiding hyperlinking anything. If you want to find out more about the contribution funds, from ftb.ca.gov click File -> Personal -> Scroll to the bottom to Contributions -> Voluntary contribution funds

I like to put a little in whichever funds I'm interested in to get my refund to a satisfying round number (this usually ends up being a contribution of around $20 total) and I feel like I have a little control over where my taxes (ish) go.

Some voluntary contribution funds are required to meet a minimum threshold of monetary contributions per year, otherwise they may be repealed! The State Parks Protection Fund threshold is higher than most, meanwhile the Peace Officer Memorial Foundation has no minimum requirement. As a wildlife biologist I like to support the California Sea Otter, Native California Wildlife Rehabilitation, Rare and Endangered Species Preservation, and State Parks Protection Funds.

But again, VOLUNTARY, and you can skip this is you want! Finish filing your state tax and save a copy for your records. In my experience doing my taxes this way I get my refunds within a couple weeks.

Anyway I hope this info is helpful! I honestly spent way more time typing up this post about filing California state taxes for free than I actually spent on doing my state taxes lol