As we moved back to the states last year, more specifically back to Philadelphia, I registered to vote in our new hometown. In my life, I have been registered to vote in three states and the District of Columbia. Now that we landed in a home never to move again, I look forward to never needing to change my state of voting registration again. Moving too, albeit to a much larger degree.
I switched my registration state when I transferred my license from DC to Pennsylvania. Also, fun fact, I changed my political party after two plus decades of being a….
None of your business! Suffice to say that I was sticking around in my former party in order to be able to vote in the primaries, although I understand that certain states (I see you, Virginia!) allow all to vote in primaries no matter the party. (Do I have that correct? Chime in below, Virginians.)
How lucky we are to live in a nation where everyone gets to exercise their right to vote. Isn’t democracy a sexy thing? Having lived around the world, across three continents, I know that is not the case everywhere.
I go back to a conversation I had with a high school friend who nearly did not vote for student government over two decades ago. Among the three girls I was running against was a good mutual friend. The non-candidate friend mentioned just not voting, to which I replied that she simply had to even if it was not for me; it would have otherwise made the votes for the other two in our competition pool stronger. Because if I could not win, I would at least want our friend to and definitely not the mean girl on the ballot. (I totally won, btw.)
Shall we get you registered to vote, then?
- Kick off your digital registration process here.
- If you are a analog girl in a digital world, print out this sheet to get your mail-in registration ball rolling.
I’m not here to tell you which way to vote but you know, don’t eff this up.