I moved over a year ago. Call it lazy or whatever you will, but I didn't register to vote immediately after moving. Last week, I finally decided to get it done before it was too late. I truly believe this presidential election might be one of the most important of my lifetime. While planning to vote for Harris/Walz in a Republican stronghold might seem pointless, I believe we need to completely overwhelm the popular vote this time around.
If Trump loses, we already know he will start crying about the election being stolen. Hell, he still thinks the last one was. The far right is attempting to use Trump to gain control, and nothing good will come of it. They are a hateful bunch that needs to be stuffed back into their dark corner of shame. This unchecked hateful rhetoric needs to stop.
In Arkansas, you have to fill out and physically sign a voter registration card and send it to the state. So, I went online and filled out a registration card so that it would already be completed, and I would just have to sign it, as my penmanship is fairly atrocious. I don't remember the exact website I used, but they also sent the unsigned voter registration to my local county clerk. I thought nothing of it, printed my registration card, signed it, and hand-delivered it to the clerk's office. One week later, I got a letter in the mail saying that I couldn't use the online form sent to them and that I would have to sign it first.
I had to go back to the clerk's office with yet another signed registration form and explained what happened. They didn't seem bothered, like it happens all the time.
I wasn't all that surprised. When I moved to Arkansas about seven years ago, I attempted to get my vehicle title transferred from Missouri to Arkansas so I could get Arkansas tags. I provided everything asked of me, but it still took more than a year to get the title transferred. They would send me a letter every time I tried, saying that they needed some form that doesn't exist from my lienholder. My bank had no idea what they were talking about and said they never had as much trouble as they do with Arkansas.
After many phone calls over the course of that year, I finally got someone who either didn't care or saw the mistake, and they granted me the Arkansas title.
I almost always vote Democrat in presidential elections. Not because I identify as Democrat, but because Republicans haven't fielded a viable candidate once in my lifetime. The closest they got to making me weigh my options was in 2008 with John McCain.
But over the last few years, I have slowly been creeping left, period. Republicans are a bitter, hateful bunch of people. The RINOs actually had some good ideas, although not implemented all that well. Financial stability on a national level was the one thing I agreed with them on. Now, the last few Republican presidents have ballooned our national deficit on par and beyond what any modern-day Democrat has.
I have heard Republican friends exclaim how they are excited about the prospect of a civil war to kill liberal Democrats. I no longer want people like that in my life. How can you be a patriot if you want to kill American citizens? That makes you a terrorist in my book.
Where I'm from, I'm an outlier. I've always been the weird guy for having liberal beliefs. By all rights, I should be MAGA all the way considering the environment I was raised in. After 40 years of hearing it, I finally took matters into my own hands and moved to a mid-size metro area that falls fairly purple on the political spectrum. It's a breath of fresh air to not have to hear the lies told by right-wing media regurgitated and spit back at me on a near-daily basis.
While I am still in Arkansas and embarrassed by our current governor, it has still been the best decision I have ever made, and I don't make many of those.
