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Monday, August 8, 2016

Voter Registration: With Schools, Every Vote Matters

Last week, the day after the election, I was helping a woman from Whitmore Lake complete a Medicaid application.



At the end of the application, there is a chance to register people to vote. 

Me: Are you registered to vote?
Her: No.
Me: Would you like to be?
Her: No. They're both a bunch of liars.

Here you see my internal struggle. On the one hand, I think, there's a good chance she wouldn't vote my way. [I'm with her...]
On the other hand, I really believe that more voters is better for the greater good, even if people don't vote "my way."

I sometimes use this moment with people to talk about how a former mayor of Ann Arbor (Albert Wheeler) and a current County Commissioner (Yousef Rabhi) only won their elections by one vote (ok, on the recount for Yousef, two votes).

So while one part of my brain is having this internal struggle, the other part of my brain (the one that goes with the "other hand") pipes up:


"The thing is, the presidential election is not the only thing on the ballot. There are lots of other things too."


And she says to me...
"You mean, I could vote on a school millage?"

Yes! Why yes, you can!
[I admit to being totally surprised by this question.]

"There's no law," I found myself saying, "that you have to vote for everything on the ballot."

"OK," she said, "I'll register."
And so we did.

You might, or might not know, but the Whitmore Lake sinking fund vote lost by six votes. SIX votes.

#votesmatter

#shewasadaylate

#nexttime

#hashtagsdonotmatter

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1 comment:

  1. Good for you, Ruth, good for this woman, and good for democracy.

    ReplyDelete

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