The partner of our son Chris, Kourtney, is a US citizen, a Democrat registered to vote in Baltimore, MD. On 25 September we accompanied her to a restaurant in the plaza of BucerÃas (a hot 20-minute walk from our temporary home) where Democrats Abroad meet every Wednesday in September to help voters register and submit their votes.
The voting rules vary by state, and (we were told) sometimes by county, and if you don’t punctiliously follow the rules your vote will not count. In Kourtney’s case, she was able to download and print out her ballot. The voting paper was long since Baltimore residents were voting for the President and Vice President (options Democrat, Republican, Green, Libertarian, unaffiliated – the latter Robert Kennedy and his running mate Nicole Shanahan); a Senator; a Congressperson; the mayor of Baltimore; president of the city council; seven judges of the Circuit 8 court; for each office there was a write-in option. There were also votes for or against continuance in office of a further five judges.
Kourtney could also vote for or against Question 1, an amendment to the Maryland constitution:
‘The proposed amendment confirms an individual's fundamental right to reproductive
freedom, including but not limited to the ability to make and effectuate decisions to prevent, continue, or end the individual's pregnancy, and provides the State may not, directly or indirectly, deny, burden, or abridge, the right unless justified by a compelling State interest achieved by the least restrictive means.’
An additional eight questions (A-H) sought approval of loans for affordable housing; for school buildings and facilities; for community and economic development; for public infrastructure; to establish the Baltimore Department as an agency of the Mayor and City Council; a proposal to permit 4.5 acres of the Inner Harbor Park to be used for the constructions of eating places, housing and parking; and amendment to the Community Reinvestment and Reparations Fund; a petition to reduce the size of the city council.
In Baltimore there are no fewer than 56 different ballot types for the presidential election. Baltimore voters need long attention spans and stamina.
Democrats Abroad, BucerÃas chapter, turned out to be a retired couple, Sue and Mike, registered to vote in Waco, TX. They had moved to BucerÃas because they wanted to live by the ocean and could not afford to do so anywhere in the USA that was not overly exposed to hurricanes. By noon, we were the only callers that day. The previous week there had been ‘a few’. Nevertheless, Sue and Mike dutifully waited to encourage every vote they could steer to vote for the Democratic ticket.
The restaurant owner helpfully asked one of his waiters to go to the local stationery shop wo buy an envelope (Mike supplied the cash), while Sue gave us directions to the nearest DHL drop-off point. Mike advised Kourtney to send her ballot to the US Consulate in Mexico City, from where Kourtney’s ballot will be sent by diplomatic pouch to Washington and thence to Baltimore. The previous week Democrats Abroad had gathered in Nuevo Vallarta to complete their ballots and then to walk in orderly groups to the local DHL office. To avoid the risk of being filmed handing over ballots in a way that could be accused of fraud, each vote handled only their own ballot and dropped it into a DHL envelope held open by a DHL employee.
