don't forget to register to vote!
one of the very neat things about where i work is that we are constantly involved with community advocacy projects. being that november is coming up soon, yesterday we had a voter registration event in honor of national voter registration day (sep 23)!
some fun facts about voting;
- everyone thinks that once you register to vote, you get on the list for jury duty. while that is technically true, in actuality there are many ways that you get added to the bank of names for jury duty. another way is through the dmv, so if you're a driver, you're already on that list anyway. so register to vote!
- the united states ranks 120th out of the 169 countries that have voting. we're behind the the dominican republic and ahead of benin. only about 60% of eligible adults vote. yikes!
i was very excited about voter registration day. we had special t-shirts and i am a huge fan of democracy. my co-tabler at the site i was at wouldn't be able to make it until later in the morning and i foolishly thought i could fumble around in cantonese, point, and generally make gestures to get out the vote. let's just say there is no easy way to mime out "vote" and "register" - my mom wasn't there, but i could keenly feel her embarrassment as i tried to eek out what i could in cantonese. so so painful. my coworker came a little later and i picked up enough vocab that i could engage a little, but it was still kind of a hard sell. mostly, a lot of folks weren't eligible ("look" card anyone?), but it was still fun to chat with them.
all this to say, if you haven't already, REGISTER TO VOTE! it takes less than two minutes. a lot of people fought very hard so that we can vote and have our voices heard! in particular, as a group asian americans are one of the most underrepresented at the polls, and we need to make sure that we stay active, especially for state and local elections.
http://registertovote.ca.gov/
- everyone thinks that once you register to vote, you get on the list for jury duty. while that is technically true, in actuality there are many ways that you get added to the bank of names for jury duty. another way is through the dmv, so if you're a driver, you're already on that list anyway. so register to vote!
- the united states ranks 120th out of the 169 countries that have voting. we're behind the the dominican republic and ahead of benin. only about 60% of eligible adults vote. yikes!
i was very excited about voter registration day. we had special t-shirts and i am a huge fan of democracy. my co-tabler at the site i was at wouldn't be able to make it until later in the morning and i foolishly thought i could fumble around in cantonese, point, and generally make gestures to get out the vote. let's just say there is no easy way to mime out "vote" and "register" - my mom wasn't there, but i could keenly feel her embarrassment as i tried to eek out what i could in cantonese. so so painful. my coworker came a little later and i picked up enough vocab that i could engage a little, but it was still kind of a hard sell. mostly, a lot of folks weren't eligible ("look" card anyone?), but it was still fun to chat with them.
all this to say, if you haven't already, REGISTER TO VOTE! it takes less than two minutes. a lot of people fought very hard so that we can vote and have our voices heard! in particular, as a group asian americans are one of the most underrepresented at the polls, and we need to make sure that we stay active, especially for state and local elections.
http://registertovote.ca.gov/
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