This is the front of my home in Orlando. Yes, I am indeed a Democrat, if that hasn’t become obvious already. I’m showing this right now in part because I’m amazed the signs are still there. In the past in this neighborhood whenever I put up any signs for any Democratic candidates, those signs were either stolen in short order or else vandalized and left in place. This year, up to this point in time, those signs have been up all of October.

Does this mean I believe Biden will win Florida? I have no idea. I tried believing in the prognosticators back in 2016, and we all know how that worked out. This time around I’ve donated time and money to get out the vote, in spite of the pandemic. I’m hopeful, but I’m not taking anything for granted. And neither, it would seem, is anybody else. A number of states have set records for early voting. For example, in Florida, at least 9 million have voted early so far, surpassing the 6+ million that voted early in 2016. But for shear chutzpa, Texas has surpassed Florida with nearly 10 million early voters, 108 percent of the total vote count in 2016. Watching what happens in Texas is going to be interesting…

I’m frozen in the moment, waiting for today to pass, then for tomorrow to come and all voters get a chance to cast their votes, followed by waiting for the results. Nothing else matters at the moment. I have no idea who will win this election year; trying to predict an outcome is a fool’s game we lost horribly in 2016. All I can say is I hope for the best, but I fear for the worst.

Vote! Vote! Vote!

I’m getting ready to vote in Florida. I’ve got my ballot marked, and ready to place it entirely in it’s Secret Sleeve, which will then go into the Special Envelope. It arrived last week, and is part of my wife and I’s setting up so that we get our ballots mailed to us until 2022. That will cover us until the 2022 midterms, which I suspect are going to be even more energetic and important than the 2018 midterms.

I would have dropped it off today at a local early voting location, but Florida shortened the early voting time from three weeks to two weeks, just one of many voter suppression acts, both big and small. My wife and I can’t drop our votes off until Monday, 19 October, at the earliest.

Why drop it off? Why not mail it back? Because the Postal Service is being actively sabotaged by Trump and his minions to make vote by mail as difficult as possible. One of the side effects of this is the slowdown in the receipt of medications and other important mail. Dropping off our completed votes is a hybrid solution to ease the burden on the post office. So our process is to ask for the ballot early enough so it comes as early in the voting cycle as possible, then fill it out as soon as possible after it’s received, finally dropping it off by hand at a local early voting station which happens to be located just five minutes from where I live. We did this for the local primary and it worked out just fine.

Also, I voted a straight Democratic ticket where I could. There are a number of amendments on this ballot which required careful research before I voted one way or another.

I’m not taking anything for granted any longer. I’m not believing the polls, even if they say Biden is ahead by double digits everywhere. I’m focused on voting for Biden and all Democrats, and in getting others motivated to at least vote, and hopefully, to persuade them to vote Biden and Democrat in general.

I’m “locked and loaded” with the most powerful weapon against Trump, a vote against him and all his minions. I can’t wait to turn it in.