While law school has ironically kept me from being as active in the "get out the vote" movement as I would like to be, I have taken it upon myself to call every person on my cell phone list who is eligible to vote and if I have doubts about their motivation to vote (If you have not received a call, it's because I know you would never miss a chance to vote).
I just got off the phone with my cousin who is an Iraq vet. He told me he will probably not vote.
1st Excuse: He's not registered.
My answer: Doesn't matter. Minnesota has same-day registration.
2nd Excuse: He doesn't know where to go to vote:
My answer: I anticipated this, so I looked it up for him and I mapquested it. It is exactly .2 miles from his house. I gave him the address.
3rd Excuse: He doesn't know who to vote for and doesn't know who the candidates are.
This one I found a little harder to answer. First, I find it strange he doesn't know ANYTHING about the candidates because of the bombardment of ads all over the TV. Second, when my call is to just make sure he exercises his right to vote, is it appropriate to plug my candidates and tell him the RNC is evil? Third, is it dirty to remind him he fought for people's freedom and the fundamental right of voting (think Iraqi fingers dipped in ink) and that he might be a hypocrite to not exercise his own right to vote?
He is still not sure if he will vote. We are supposed to have another phone conference later this afternoon and it will be my last chance to convince him to vote tomorrow. Please post your thoughts on tactics to persuade him that he MUST vote, even if he's not sure who the best candidate is.
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2 comments:
I got a sticker when I voted today. I think most people do. It's a pretty good incentive because then you walk around feeling like you did something important and everyone knows it. And for a day at least, you convince yourself you are a civic-minded individual. It's like the sticker for blood donation. Hey, what did you do today? Well, today, I saved a life.
Well, today I did my part to save this country.
This may be too late, but I think it's OK to make the point about fighting so that Iraqis can vote. You're a lawyer, you know how to finesse language so that it comes out sounding less righteous, or how to talk to him so that it seems like he came to that conclusion on his own. And I'm sure he can find some kind of very basic chart of differences between the candidates to help him decide.
I did not get a sticker today. Maybe it's because I voted for Alan Hevesi?
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