New Orleans This isn’t news: the midterm elections are around the corner. It’s crazy time! Anyone who is not worrying about whether or not their vote is going to be counted or purged for some unknown and scurrilous reason is just not paying attention.
If you live in a red state, as I certainly do, you simply must realize that being purged is an ever-present danger. That is especially true if you live in a blue island with an African-American majority or any minority-majority that exists like a big open wound on the political map of the state. Think not only New Orleans, but Austin, Houston, Charlotte, Memphis, Tampa, and more. We may not be battlegrounds, but we are the last of the sturdy forts in our states hunkered down to prevent the zombie apocalypse of the right. We’re sending out scout teams and recruiting every day.
Kris Kobach, the ruthless enemy of democracy and wannabe national gatekeeper locking access to the voting booth for anyone who doesn’t look and think exactly like him, has created voting purge systems of questionable technological efficacy that have wrongly knocked voters off the rolls in dozens of states around the country with the database he created to so effectively do so as Kansas Secretary of State. Having now barely survived as the winning candidate in the Republican primary of governor in Kansas by 110 votes at last count, he feels the importance of voter suppression very personal for him and his allies’ path to potential power.
A friend, fellow traveler and long-time politico out of nowhere sent me a link, https://www.dontgetpurged.org/ with the cryptic message, “pass the word.” A simple click on the link allows you to type in the information and within the twinkling of an eye, you find out whether you are good to go for the coming elections or have been…dread the word…purged! The site walks you through what to do next to get right, if the answer was bad news.
This is a project of something called Vote.org, which from its website seems to be a Silicon Valley-lite project enlisting tech tools to deal with voting access. Its backstory seems to have been an effort 10-years ago to deal with absentee voting that got a new life and a fresh wind behind its back in its new iteration with a refreshing lineup that breaks at least a little of the techster mode with a woman as CEO, an all-woman board, and a small staff lineup that is overwhelmingly populated with women as well.
None of this will stop the apocalypse we’re facing, but it’s another strong nail helping hold the wall up and making sure that everyone we need is lining up inside the fort to vote for our future in the coming election. You got the message, https://www.dontgetpurged.org/, click the button, spread the word, and get your vote on!