Vote Early! That's the message of the next No Kings rally scheduled in Santa Fe (and nationwide) for October 17.
All indications are that free and fair elections would result in a Democratic landslide on Election Day. Inflation and gas prices are skyrocketing. A pointless war with Iran is costing taxpayers billions per day. Meanwhile the President is obsessed about his gold-plated ballroom. With his polling at historic lows, Trump will do whatever necessary to sabotage the results of the mid-terms.
In contravention of the Constitution, he is already trying to interfere with mail-in voting (the way one third of all Americans cast their ballots). He has gerrymandered Congressional districts to tilt the playing field toward Republicans. He has filled state and local offices with election deniers. As shown on January 6, 2020, when rioters stormed the Capitol to prevent the peaceful transfer of power, he is ready to resort to mob violence to thwart the will of the voters and maintain his own grip on power.
Why vote early? It's the best strategy to counter Trump's attempts at voter suppression and election tampering. Suppose he surrounds polling stations with ICE goons on November 3 to intimidate voters of color? Their votes will already have been cast and tabulated! \Imagine that he orders U.S. troops to seize voting machines on Election Day on the pretext of some phoney national emergency? Early ballots will already have been counted! The surest way to ensure that your vote is registered and makes a difference this season is to head to a polling station early to make sure your voice is heard.
America is not just on the road to dictatorship, we are already over the threshold. Trump and his billionaire cronies are well advanced on their agenda to seize absolute control over the levers of power: attacking the free press, undermining universities and centers of independent thought, ignoring court orders and flouting Congressional mandates (like Congress's demand that he release the full trove of the Epstein files). The only hope of saving what remains of our democracy comes this fall when voters head to the polls and say Enough!
Here in Santa Fe County early voting begins on October 6 at the County Clerk's Office, with expanded locations available beginning October 17. Click here to see your options for when and where to vote. Early voting is easy and avoids the lines sure to appear on Election Day.
As in the past, No Kings on October 17 will be a mass rally of citizens standing together to say NO to oligarchy and the mania of one tired, demented man obsessed with amassing wealth and personal glory. (Put the date now on your calendar.) But more than that, it will be a call to action, to create the biggest surge of early voting in American history.
Invite your friends and neighbors to the polling booth for a community wide expression of resistance. Set a date, make a plan. Share your reason for voting early on social media. Join in expressing the will of the people at the place it matters most, in the voting booth. Vote early to return control of Congress to the majority and say definitively:
NO KINGS IN AMERICA.
