The long arm of the claw
As an American citizen living abroad, my right to vote in the coming presidential election is under siege. Republicans are aware that a majority of overseas voters are Democrats, so they are deliberately trying to get such votes disallowed on a technicality. Should I make just one small mistake, by failing to place my signature and the properly formatted date on the outer envelope of my ballot, Republicans want my vote to be tossed out without any recourse for correcting the error.
There’s a subtlety here not discussed in the news, as far as I can tell. The United States has a nearly unique way of writing the date that is imitated in only two other countries, Canada and Belize. In America, the date is formally written as month/day/year. Everywhere else (including in Great Britain) it’s day/month/year.
I am aware of both. But after twenty years of living in England it’s easy to forget. Should I mail my ballot, say, on the eleventh of October, and instead of writing 10/11/2024 I should write 11/10/2024 (in European format), it could look to the average election worker as if I sent in my ballot on a date that hasn’t yet occurred, thus being in technical violation of the rules.
These kinds of simple human errors have been used against voters before. Back in the bad old days, days that Republicans want to return to in order to “Make America Great AGAIN,” the votes of black people were frequently disallowed for spelling errors or other picayune and irrelevant mistakes.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 said otherwise. It said that a person’s right to vote cannot be infringed for “an error or omission on any record or paper relating to any application, registration, or other act requisite to voting” that is “not material” in determining whether they’re qualified to vote. The American Civil Liberties Union is currently asking the court to review this 1964 provision on behalf of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, the court they are asking is the racist and corrupt United States Supreme Court.
I feel like someone tied to two ropes in which two opposite interests are playing tug-of-war, one trying to deny me of my vote for a corrupt purpose and one trying to protect my sacred right to vote. Every day that my ballot is delayed is a victory for Republicans. Delays mean time, and time is critical in overseas mailings. I’ve received letters sent early one month from the United States late in the next. The longer this goes on, the greater the risk that my vote won’t arrive on time.
I feel the icy chill of the long arm of the Republican claw on my shoulder. I am aware that my vote counts too much, and in ways that are wholly unfair. If the 2024 election were decided by popular vote, the contest would already be over. Kamala would win by a landslide. But because of the outmoded and racist electoral college system, my vote could make the difference in just one county in just one state. But because that county could decide the state, and that state could decide the election, my one vote could be all-important.
It’s an absurd way to decide the fate of the country, but it’s the one we have. In the meantime I am on tenterhooks awaiting the moment when I am free of the long arm of this terrible claw. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.