As Nov. 8 approaches, I could not be more excited to exercise my right as an American and watch my vote count in both the national election and on local ballot measures. Lucky for me, I get to send my vote in by mail, and I don’t have to even worry about finding my polling place.
As someone who is still registered to vote in California, it’s a unique experience to be able to meditate over my ballot, and really think about what I want to bubble in. This may not seem all that unique to you if you’re a registered voter in Washington state. You may think that everyone — in every state — receives their ballot by mail, but this is simply not the case in most states.
In fact, Washington, Oregon, and Colorado are the only states in all of the United States that solely vote by mail.
When I arrived in Seattle as a freshman, I considered switching my voting registration over to Washington. I would be living here for at least four years and the whole process seemed easy enough: I would fill out a form and receive my Washington ballot in the mail. However, I felt attached to my life in California, and Los Angeles specifically. It felt strange that I could potentially vote for a ballot measure I would never see enacted in my time at the UW.
So I did some further research and realized that I didn’t need to be present in California to vote there. I could register as a permanent “vote by mail” voter and essentially invoke the same process Washington state uses for all its voters.
This means that every time there’s an election in my district in Los Angeles, I receive my ballot along with a voter guide — an information packet with everything I need to know.
Voting absentee also means I get to have a say in ballot measures and congress people I’ve been hearing about my whole life through the California schooling system and news. If I had chosen to become a registered voter in Washington, I would be voting in a system I have little prior knowledge of.
In this specific election, this means I get to choose between two women of color to be United States senators: Kamala Harris, who is currently the first black and Asian attorney general of California, and Loretta Sánchez, who would be the first Latina to serve in Senate.
Voting in California this November election also provides me with the opportunity to vote yes on banning the usage of single-use plastic grocery bags, yes on the legalization of marijuana, and yes on donating $1.2 billion in obligation bonds to provide resources for the homeless in Los Angeles. Similar measures have already been enacted in Seattle, and my vote is therefore more important right now in LA.
Seattle, an already more progressive city than LA, needs my vote less right now. I’m not saying this election isn’t a meaningful one in Washington as well, but it feels good to be supporting the place I grew up in with my vote.
On a national level, this strategic choice of where one votes becomes even more important if you come from a state that is projected to swing “red” rather than “blue” this election. In my case, both California and Washington are “blue” states. If I grew up in Texas, for example, remaining registered there would make my progressive vote count a lot more than it would in Washington.
It’s easy to get caught up in thinking about where we vote this election, but all pickiness aside, the important take away is to get out there and vote.
Reach Opinion Editor Rebecca Gross at specials@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @becsgross
