Trying to Manifest a Blue Wave

I knew I couldn’t sit around today. I volunteered to do one more push of ballot curing. Letting people who mailed in ballots that were rejected know so they could go to the polls. I dressed all in blue to act as a human blue wave. It was just one more subliminal way to get the message out.

I was given fifteen names of people in Durham and I went to parts of the city I had never visited before. I had elderly African American women, a young Indian mother, a new mom with a five day old baby, I had a senior citizen couple of Chinese descent and a public school teacher who was teaching on zoom. Those were the people I was able to catch at home. I went to two houses where the people obviously had not been home in the last week because mine was not the first door hanger letting them know their ballot had been rejected. Sadly their votes will probably not be counted.

What I have learned from this election is the best thing you can do is vote in-person early if you are able. Mail in ballots, while technically a valid option, depend on the voter doing absolutely everything perfectly as well as counting on the USPS to be infallible. The new mother I visited was frustrated because she and her husband had hand delivered their ballots and his was accepted and stamped as hand delivered and her was mistakenly stamped as delivered in the mail and therefore was somehow disqualified since it did not have a postmark. The new mother did not know this at the time of drop off. It was human error, but human error happens.

I think if I have learned anything at all it is that voting is a right and a privilege others before me worked to ensure for me. It is only right that I continue that work to ensure that those who come after me have that same right. Democracy is not gravity, it does not just automatically happen. It must be continually fought for. Here’s to a good fight and a decent America.