Steve Martaindale

Be heard. Raise your hand. Register. Vote!

It is 100 days until the next U.S. congressional midterm election.

If it passes like all the others the past 50 years, a minority of voters will decide the path our nation takes.

Make no mistake. We are on a perilous course because of the latest election. Some of the blame goes to Russian interference, but the bulk of it falls squarely on the shoulders of eligible voters who did not bother turning out. Or they threw away their votes or they fell victim to Russian and Republican misinformation campaigns and did not vote intelligently. Some, of course, are happy with the current nationalistic track toward fascism, made happy only through witnessing the oppression of people unlike them, but their numbers are small.

Here, we’re focusing on 2018, however, where midterm elections traditionally pull in smaller numbers of voters. The highest turnout percentage since 1965 was 48.4% in 1966, presumably inspired by the Vietnam War. In the latest midterm, 2014, only 35.9 percent voted, the lowest since World War II.

That’s the message on Day 1 of this election countdown, one that will be repeated often: Make sure you’re registered, vote early, encourage your friends to do the same.

Verify your voter registration status at https://www.headcount.org/verify-voter-registration/ and, if you’re not registered, do it today.

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Advisory: This series is written for liberals, others who have not voted, and those who simply are undecided. Please understand I am not writing to anyone who remains a Trump supporter or who backs his Republican Party enablers. Such folks need a spiritual reawakening I’m unlikely to give them. I will not be entering arguments. In fact, I won’t even allow such comments on this blog. On Facebook or Twitter, I will delete them and, if necessary, unfriend or block the person.

In all honesty, you might want to not follow me the next few months if you’re a diehard Trump fan.

On the other hand, if you wish to follow this blog, enter your email at the top of the right column. You can also find me on Twitter and Facebook.