6stronghands:

Election Tampering is happening

Don’t vote straight tickets, don’t just select Democrat. Do each choice individually. People voting straight tickets in Texas caught the machines changing Beto votes to Cruz, while leaving the rest of the ticket Democrat.

Do individual votes, CHECK OVER YOUR BALLOT BEFORE YOU SUBMIT. Don’t exit out and try to start over, you aren’t allowed, your vote will be nulled. Get a poll worker to help you and have THEM document any machine errors, don’t take a pic of your ballot. Get a receipt of your vote. Ask poll workers how they are backing up votes. If you vote by mail, it’s critical to get your ballot in the mail asap. Thousands of votes aren’t counted because they’re stamped too late.

If you’re voting in person, go over every choice in the ballot carefully, and double check that the machine hasn’t changed your choice BEFORE you hit submit. Take your time, even if there’s a long line outside. Ask poll people for help if you have any questions. THERE ARE NO DUMB QUESTIONS.

Sometimes I have to ask really basic questions over and over and over before I understand stuff. I never forget, once it’s in my head, but some stuff takes clarifying and reclarifying and re-re-clarifying. I have learned to tell people that I’m not trying to be obtuse or difficult, that I have ADHD and I have to ask and re-ask. I don’t love sharing that with strangers, but it’s the most effective approach (I’ve tried a lot of different coping and learning methods over the years, including “I’d rather people think I’m stupid or sullen or contrary, I’ll be damned if I tell them that I process stuff differently”). But now I repeat back what they said to me, and they say, yup, that’s right, and then usually I say, I have ADHD, so I need to run this by you again to make sure I’m on the same page as you, and I ask some more questions, and 99% of the time they’re cool with it, and help me till I understand. A few people go from thinking I’m contrary to thinking I’m dumb, you can see it in their faces after I explain, but 1. Who cares, I need to understand, so they need to help me, and 2. I don’t think other people are dumb when they don’t notice all the things I see, from subtext to prediction to whatever. There are a lot of ways to be a person. I’m pretty secure with my level of intelligence, and I don’t look down on non-ADHD brains ffs, and 3. This is a small, but important aspect of disability and accessibility. If I told them I had dyslexia, people would be more patient with me re-stating and re-questioning. If I had other disabilities, they would be legally required to assist me or make the process accessible to me.

Everyone gets a seat at the table.

Everyone gets a vote.

Ask for help if you need it, is what I’m saying here.