Vote!

/ Ken Gierke / rivrvlogr

Raise your voice,
that it may be heard.
It need not be loud
nor filled with rhetoric.
Be precise, that your intent
not be mistaken.

Do not let it be stolen.
Let no man bar entrance
nor deny you this right.
If caution is a concern, let it be
by post, but remember.
The time is now.

Be not silent when it comes
to the fate of our future
and that of our children.
There is only defeat in silence.
Exercise your right to vote.
Let your voice be heard.

This poem is my response to MTB: Protest Poetry,
the prompt from Grace at dVerse ~ Poets Pub.

Image source: pngfuel.com

35 thoughts on “Vote!”

  2. You hooked me with “there is only defeat in silence”. I’ve always been depressed by low voter turnouts, even in Presidential elections. Trump is trying his damndest to suppress the vote, to cheat. Let’s hope he does not succeed.

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  5. I voted today. You can go to your country clerk’s office and do absentee voting in person. No notary needed. No worries about someone hiding my mail in ballot or claiming my vote wasn’t legit. It was easy to do, very safe, too. They asked why and I said concerns about COVID-19. That’s a weight off.

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    • Thank you, Frank.
      As for mail-in ballots, we are in a time when they have become essential for those not willing to accept additional exposure during this pandemic.
      Absentee ballots have always been an option for those who know they will be away at the time of an election. In fact, Trump, himself, has done just that in order to vote in Florida, yet he insists mail-in ballots will be forged. Some states already had a practice of allowing mail-in ballots for all citizens, and other states are allowing it specifically because of the pandemic – some states are automatically mailing ballots to ALL citizens. Meanwhile, Trump continues to claim that mail-in ballots will be rife with cheating and is already making plans to have all mail-in ballots invalidated.
      My son in Ohio is lamenting that his ballot is already in the mail. I, for one, plan to vote in-person. Here, in Missouri, mail-in voting is provisional – only to the end of the year (no future elections), and it MUST be sent by mail and received by election day, so that someone concerned about the backlog of mail created by Trump’s removal of mail sorting machines and overtime pay cannot hand deliver or count on a ballot drop-box.
      From the start, I anticipated a challenge by Trump, although I don’t know that I ever expected his plans to be so grand.

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  8. Yes, please vote. I am worried about the postal votes not being counted. I am watching from the other side of the Atlantic and I see democracy being demolished in the ‘land of the free.’ Troubling times.

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    • Thank you. And even worse, our president encourages “agents” (whether law enforcement or armed citizens) to be stationed outside of polling places to “ensure” legal voting – an action that is obviously meant as intimidation. This man cannot be gone soon enough.

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  11. kaykuala
    There is only defeat in silence.
    Exercise your right to vote.
    Let your voice be heard.

    This can be a page to the run-up of this November, Ken! It appears that feelings are stacked against the incumbent seen very much in many comments and for many occasions. The ordinary folks seemed to have seen just about everything and that they are tired of.it all.

    Hank

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