I've been reading right-wing conspiracies online about UOCAVA voters -- or those who vote under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act. Yes, that includes me and Dave. We are proud UOCAVA voters.
The conspiracists are convinced that UOCAVA ballots are the device by which the Democrats plan to "steal" the election. They are suspicious of the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of American citizens who live overseas and rightfully wish to weigh in on the presidential race. They seem to think we don't really exist, or at least not in the numbers that we do.
Some right-wingers express hostility that we're able to vote at all -- even though we're citizens and we file American taxes -- as if moving off American soil somehow turns us into instant traitors. (Of course their skepticism doesn't extend to the military -- military voters and their families are given a complete pass. It's only civilians like me who worry them.)
They also seem perplexed that a high percentage of overseas voters cast ballots for the Democrats. Assuming that's true, I suspect it's because overseas voters are more educated and less nationalistic by nature, having become used to crossing international boundaries and living among different kinds of people with different laws, cultures and political systems. We are the dreaded globalists, in other words. We're not flying "Don't Tread on Me" flags and waving badly misunderstood copies of the U.S. Constitution.
So I'm here to say yes, I am a UOCAVA voter. I vote Democrat. We do exist. And according to my voting jurisdiction in the United States, my ballot has been received and counted.
Here's one of our newest books in the school library -- co-written by fellow blogger 37 Paddington, otherwise known as Rosemarie. Woo hoo! It was exciting to label, cover and shelve a book by someone I know, even just virtually.
The flowers on our Thanksgiving (Christmas? Halloween?) cacti are beginning to open! This one and a second pink one, which you can see in the background at upper left, are blooming. My other three cacti are coming along more slowly, but we'll see what the future brings.
(Top photo: The Alexandra and Ainsworth Estate on my walk home last night.)
The cacti look fabulous. I'm glad your votes got counted and the conspiracy theorists can all take a trip in Elon Musk's next spaceship.
ReplyDeleteThe pot plant looks great
ReplyDeleteIf "The Pussy Grabber" gets in, he will round up the non-military UOCAVA voters the minute they step back on American soil. They will be rounded up and placed in a huge detention camp in the middle of Montana and forced to wear Trump T-shirts and red MAGA caps.
ReplyDeleteThere's a move against the votes of military people and their families. Repeated efforts, unsuccessful up to now, to invalidate their voting, because they're not on American soil at the time of voting! Desperate moves to steal an election.
ReplyDeleteThe book is exciting. Mary Moon has been celebrating it, too.
Overseas based Australians can vote in elections, yet unlike Americans, we don't pay Australian income tax when we are earning money overseas. It would be outrageous that you would be paying federal tax in America yet not be entitled to vote.
ReplyDeleteI love your cactus blossoms. Mine are a few days behind.
ReplyDeleteThe wingnuts are looking for any excuse to cry election foul. Now it's Americans living overseas and weren't there Americans living overseas in 2020 and 2016 though no one cried foul???
ReplyDeleteI see a lot of hostility all around and often receive some of it for suggesting compromise on such issues. While I think UOCAVA voters deserve the right to vote, I think the entire system of mailing ballots back and forth across seas is ripe for bad actors to take advantage. I would imagine it is hard to prove that an ex-pat is still alive and voting from an ocean away when we struggle doing this domestically. My own state, just this week, found over 2000 people who registered to vote in this election who said themselves said they weren't U.S. Citizens, 87 of them who have already voted illegally in past elections. I'm sure other states fight this as well. Do they sway an election? I don't think so but I think it shows that we need to stay vigilant and have these sorts of discussions/investigations. If we just turn a blind eye and assume only legitimate people will cast ballots all the time, we are just opening ourselves up to having a dictator like Putin/Trump exploit our system and someday truly rig a vote in their favor.
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