The simplest of things can be among the most powerful.
That’s important to remember when discordant noise, corrosive distractions and confusion are at their most intense – as is the case now in our America.
Few things better fit the category of both simple and powerful than exercising the right to vote on Election Day. Americans both in and out of uniform have paid with their lives to secure a tool that too many too often fail to use.
To participate in this important duty of empowered democracy, quite simply, you first have to be registered to vote. And Monday, Oct. 5 is the absolute deadline to do that in Georgia if you wish to cast a ballot on November 3. And we earnestly hope you will register before then – or, alternately, check your registration status – and back up that action where it counts by recording your vote on or before Election Day.
Much of the still-exceptional American experiment is built upon the foundation of an informed citizenry having its say when the voting machines are fired up. One person, one vote. It’s as simple and profound as that – or it should be. And governments change, or adjust, based on that expressed will of We the People.
Anyone not physically unconscious in 2020 knows that this is a general election year. And, for multiple reasons, it is not a typical one. Far from it, given that the events and crises this nation and the surrounding world are now enduring will be discussed – and argued about for decades, if not centuries, to come.
For starters, an often-deadly pall of a pandemic has draped heavily over this land in 2020, setting the backdrop against much of what else has come to the forefront of our civic affairs. COVID-19 is afflicting an America that’s as harshly divided along party and demographic lines as we’ve seen in generations.
There are no easy or fast solutions to the imposing tally of challenges that face and affect all Americans today. That can understandably lead us to bouts of dismay, if not despair, collectively and individually. That is a normal outlay of human emotion and, in most cases, thankfully the feeling passes, although 2020 is putting that optimism to the full test, we admit.
Americans, seen as a whole, are normally an upbeat lot. That’s aided by the fact that our founders left us a system of government that remains the envy of the free world.
We have access to the ballot box – a powerful tool of self-governance that has, thus far, helped ensure domestic tranquility just as the founders intended. It lets our voices and intentions be forcefully heard in the halls of power where it counts.
Last Tuesday marked National Voter Registration Day. Begun in 2012, it’s not a national holiday, but it does make an important observance.
Voting is a cornerstone duty of the citizenry, we believe. Apathy or even disgust at our current affairs should not deter Americans from making their choices at the polls.
That can only happen if eligible citizens are properly registered to vote. The website nationalvoterregistrationday.org makes this ominous pronouncement: “Every year millions of Americans find themselves unable to vote because they miss a registration deadline, don’t update their registration, or aren’t sure how to register.”
That’s a shake-your-head situation for sure. Cynics have been known to observe that the right to vote is, conversely, also the right not to vote if one so chooses. In a freedom-loving country based heavily on individual rights, they have a point, we admit. But it’s not a viewpoint that bodes well for the health of a democracy that’s boisterously robust in debate even during times of relative national unity, we believe.
And broad agreement on what really matters is not where we are right now. The political advertisements covering the airwaves and the campaign mailers filling our mailboxes daily remind us of that. The political points made therein are likely to be overweighted with mudslinging and relatively light on exposition around the real issues that need attention.
Perhaps the biggest common theme that reaches across the partisan divides at this point is that this is a momentous year for our America.
We believe voters have a large role to play in helping this nation begin to move toward solutions on Nov. 3rd. That can only happen if all who are eligible and able actually vote by whatever method is legally available to them.
A key deadline in that process is fast approaching. Unregistered Georgians must have submitted their voter registration form by October 5. That leaves little more than one week for citizens to act accordingly to ensure they’re duly listed on the rolls. If you’ve previously registered, now is the time to check that you’re still listed on the active voting rolls.
Democracy’s duty demands that much of us. For the love of freedom, we should all comply.
The Editorial Board.
Voting information and important dates
Oct. 5: Deadline to register to vote in the November 3 election. To register online (requires a valid driver license or state ID card), or print a paper registration form to be mailed in, or to check your registration status, go to: https://registertovote.sos.ga.gov/GAOLVR/
Oct. 12: Advance in-person (Early) voting begins for the November General Election and Special Election. Check with your county’s election office for details about specific voting locations, dates and times.
Oct. 24: Mandatory Saturday voting takes place for the November 3 General Election and Special Election. Check with your county election office for location and time details.
Nov. 3: General Election Day for in-person voting.
Absentee Voting information
To-do now: Request an absentee ballot form. This can be done either by mail or electronically. Check with the Georgia Secretary of State’s office or your county’s election office for details.
To request an absentee ballot online: https://ballotrequest.sos.ga.gov/
Check your mail too: Multiple organizations have also already mailed paper absentee ballot request forms to many prospective Georgia voters in the weeks leading up to the Nov. 3 election. They can be completed by you, then returned by mail (allowing time for possible postal delivery delays) or electronically.
For general information on your voting status, go to: https://www.mvp.sos.ga.gov/MVP/mvp.do
