Roscoeland

1) DON’T use your search bar to find and open the Run app

2) DON’T type in services.msc

3) DON’T find Adobe Genuine Software Integrity Services and right-click to get a dropdown menu, and don’t select ‘properties’

4) if you happen to click properties, DON’T use the startup type dropdown to locate the option to disable the program. be sure you DON’T click apply to finalize that change. 

5) DO NOT do the same thing in order to also disable Adobe Genuine Software Monitor 

if you do all of these things, this WILL disable adobe’s ability to monitor the software, and you will be forced to continue using the same older software that you already paid for instead of having to sign up for a newer, shittier version and pay more for it. so if you have lots of cash to spare and are cool with putting it the pockets of racketeering capitalists, definitely don’t do any of these things. 

I’M SORRY MA'AM. I KNOW YOU’RE UPSET.

If you're eligible to vote in the midterms already and haven't yet, make a plan for how to go vote tomorrow.

Know your polling place and when it opens and closes. Know the rules in your state and at your job about taking off from work to vote. Be prepared to wait in line.

Okay so clearly I've underestimated y'all

So how about we make this more interesting?

Us:

When I made this post, it was supposed to be a joke

I mean, none of my posts ever get more than 20 notes if I'm lucky, so what are the odds of one reaching 666k? Impossible, haha

But then, something happened, something I didn't expect

People actually began to... like it? And... reblog? And comment?

Before I knew it, my notifications were swarmed with comments after comments after reblogs after comments all on this one post

Then, still in the mindset of this being a joke, I realised I'd made the goal too easy, so I upped the stakes

But... the notes just got more frequent from there

And it started to hit me just what was happening

For a while, I was overwhelmed with a feeling

A feeling I wasn't used to

It was like... all of a sudden... I mattered...

My existance was actually noteworthy

People actually... cared?

It wasn't a game anymore, it was a race to assure a stranger on the Internet that they were actually worth something

Hundreds of people all gathering in one online place to help out

Leaving messages and well wishes

Making me smile

Making me laugh

Funny comments

Jokes

Fun facts

Even simple comments

It all suddenly felt so real

This was never a joke to you

This was important

And I won't let any of that go in vain

So... stay tuned I suppose

I'll look after myself, and I'll post proof of it too

I'll catalogue every time I put my health first

Physical and mental

I'll acknowledge my bad days and celebrate my good days

But most of all

I won't forget this

Any of this

Ever

(Tagging all the people in that screenshot)

This year, Republican Bruce Poliquin sought reelection, having served in the House of Representatives for two terms.  He ran against the Democrats’ candidate, Jared Golden. 

Poliquin got 46.2% of the votes.  Golden got 45.7% of the votes.

So Poliquin got more votes… right?

What if I told you that Golden is expected to be the new Representative?

You’ll notice that 46.2% + 45.7% = 91.9%, not 100%.  

See, Poliquin and Golden weren’t the only candidates, there were also Independent candidates like like Tiffany Bond and Will Hoar.   

Normally in America, if you vote for someone that’s “kinda like a Democrat, but not a Democrat” you run the risk of having a Republican win (and if you vote for someone “kinda like a Republican” it can be seen as helping the Democrats).

For example, over in Arizona it looks like the Democratic candidate for the Senate might have won… except some people voted for a liberal “Green Party” candidate.  More than twice as many people than were needed for the Democrat to win.  So the Republican candidate goes to the Senate.

The election was won by the candidate that less voters liked.

Back to Maine.

In 2016, Maine became the first state in America to vote in favor of having their federal elections be decided by ranked choice/instant runoff voting.  

Under this type of voting, people fill out a ballot to say which candidate they like the most… and which candidate would be their second choice, their third choice, and so on.

If no candidate gets a majority of the votes, then officials look at the ballots again and say “okay which candidates got the fewest votes? Who did their supporters say was their second choice?”

The votes for the candidates that got nowhere near a majority are given to whichever candidate was the “Second choice” of those voters.  The goal is to ensure that the winning candidate is someone that a majority of the population is at least okay with.

And that’s why Poliquin, with his 46.2% is expected to lose to Golden and his 45.7%.  Because the people that ended up voting for an Independent mostly said “well, Golden wouldn’t be my favorite… but he’s better than Poliquin!”

The end result still isn’t perfect, but it’s a vastly more democratic process, that has the potential to elect officials far more representative of the population. 

People can vote for an Independent freely instead of holding their nose and voting for the “lesser evil.”  Independent parties can have a chance to grow instead of being demonized as taking away votes. 

And candidates can look at the results and say “huh, a lot of the people that got me elected really liked that Independent.  Maybe I should see what were the policies that made the Independent popular?

A hard right Republican with nearly identical views, who commonly expressed overt racism and insisted his will was the will of the people despite his preposterously low numbers. And who broke the previous governor of Maine’s record number of 118 vetoes with 642. (More than every veto issued in the state combined between his 2011 election and 1917.) Effectively vetoing damned near every measure that the population of Maine he constantly claimed his views represented attempted to vote into place.