just let me lie in

Greetings friends! The midterms are so close, are you registered to vote?

You: I can’t vote, I’m an Ex-Offender

ARE YOU SURE?

I live in Vermont or Maine: You never lost your right to vote

I live in DC, Hawai’i, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland*, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, or Utah: You can vote upon your release from incarceration. 

That’s cool but I don’t live in those states. I live in: Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Washington (state), West Virginia.: You can vote once you have completed your sentence (parole and/or probation) 

Wow! That’s really cool. But, um. I don’t live in those states. I live in: 

Alabama: You cannot vote if you have been convicted of any felony listed here. Crimes of  ‘moral turpitude’ including: Murder, Manslaughter, Kidnapping, Rape, Sodomy, Sexual Torture/Abuse  

Arizona: First time offender? Complete your probation and payment of any fine or restitution and you can vote. Multiple Offender? You have to apply to a judge to vote.

Delaware You cannot vote if you have been convicted of murder, bribery or sexual offenses. If you have been pardoned or had your sentence completed, get your vote on!

Florida Rights must be restored via the governor and a clemency board. In the November elections Floridians have the opportunity to vote for Amendment Four and restore voting rights to over a million Floridians.   So that man that threw an alligator at someone can vote??  YES but so can your dumb little brother who thought carrying a concealed weapon would be cool when he was 19. So can the drug addict who robbed a convenience store but has been clean for 20 years. 

Iowa You must petition the governor

Kentucky You must petition the governor

Mississippi If you have committed one of the following crimes: armed robbery, arson, bigamy, bribery, carjacking, embezzlement, extortion, felony bad check, felony shoplifting, forgery, larceny, murder, obtaining money or goods under false pretense, perjury, rape, receiving stolen property, robbery, statutory rape, theft, timber larceny, and unlawful taking of a vehicle. you cannot vote unless a bill passed by both houses of the legislature or through the governor. If you did NOT commit one of those crimes, you can vote even while incarcerated 

Nebraska Voting rights are automatically restored two years after the completion of all supervised release 

Nevada Voting rights are restored automatically after sentence completion if convicted of a non-violent felony. However, those convicted of a violent felony and all second-time felony offenders (whether violent or non-violent) can only have their rights restored by the court in which they were convicted.

Tennessee Individuals convicted of a felony since 1981–except for some felonies such as murder, rape, treason and voter fraud–may apply to the Board of Probation and Parole to have their voting rights restored once their sentence is completed.

Virginia: You can vote if you completed your sentence, including probation and parole. This is not a law but an order by the governor. A new governor can repeal this. 

Wisconsin-Voting rights are automatically restored upon completion of all supervised release

Wyoming- Voting rights restoration is dependent on the type of conviction: first-time non-violent felony offenders can apply to the Wyoming Board of Parole five years after completion of sentence. All others must apply to the Governor for either a pardon or a restoration of rights, but must wait ten and five years, respectively, after completing their sentence.

In many cases you must RE-REGISTER to vote but you can vote.

*If you are guilty of buying or selling votes, you have to get the governor to pardon you. 

This is not intended to be comprehensive, you should check out your state’s laws for any quirks.  

Shane’s Face during Post Mortems Part 2 (Part 1)

Bonus (Forgotten between Moon River + Jimmy Hoffa):

Galaxy Quest (1999)

Don’t vote third party, not in this election. Now is not the time for a protest vote.

I know Tumblr is largely young and likes to sometimes poke fun at us older people, but please, in this case, listen to those of us who voted in 2000. I GET the idea of a protest vote and wanting a viable third party. I do. I was all about that in 2000. I, along with a lot of other idealistic people, voted for Ralph Nader in 2000. I wasn’t crazy about Gore, but I was convinced that SURELY the American people couldn’t elect someone like Dubya. (I mean, the question is whether the American people actually DID, but that’s another rant.)

I was wrong. We got eight years of one of the worst administrations in US history.

This election IS NOT THE TIME for a protest vote. There’s too much at stake. I don’t care if you don’t like Hillary on a personal basis. She is one of the most qualified people to ever run for President, and her “scandals” are either part of an elaborate 20 year smear campaign or literally no worse than any other politician’s. (See John Oliver’s raisin analogy.)

I honestly do not know how anybody could watch the debates last night and come out of it thinking that Donald Trump is in any way suited to be president. That leaves Hillary. A third party candidate is not going to win. To vote for Gary Johnson or Jill Stein is literally only going to help Trump. Nothing else.

“Ethicists say voting with your heart, without a care about the consequences, is actually immoral” 

this segment from “On the Media.” 

“There’s No Such Thing As A Protest Vote”

Here’s a quote from the last one, by Clay Shirky: 

Throwing away your vote on a message no one will hear, and which will change no outcome, is sometimes presented as ‘voting your conscience’, but that’s got it exactly backwards; your conscience is what keeps you from doing things that feel good to you but hurt other people. Citizens who vote for third-party candidates, write-in candidates, or nobody aren’t voting their conscience, they are voting their ego, unable to accept that a system they find personally disheartening actually applies to them.

I’m hunting for a fantastic tweet I saw recently, about how saying things like, “I live in a blue state, my vote doesn’t matter, I can vote however I want” essentially creates a two-tiered system, where you grant yourself the INCREDIBLY privileged status of “voting with your heart” while your neighbors do the work of making sure that state stays blue and we don’t all die in a nuclear holocaust. 

It’s extraordinary how third-party voters are framing this as a question of ethics, when it’s really your privilege versus collective pragmatism. And as Shirky says in that piece, the major third parties are deeply ineffectual—charities and foundations actually doing this good, moral work could use your dollars and your vocal support to help enact change. 

get to know me meme - [22/25] films ↳ practical magic (1998) dir. griffin dunne

This is one of my favorite versions of Chicago.  It’s a banjo-only version, and you can really hear Sufjan’s voice.  There’s something about the recording quality that makes it more intimate.