Register. Vote. Act.

PRENOTE;  This post is about Voting.  More below this note.  It is no coincidence that I am posting before the Presidents speech tonight.  We need to be actively engaged.

Midday today I went to MN Orchestra performance.  This was a fill-in for a previously missed concert, and this was one of last concerts of the season, so I ended up in the third balcony in an otherwise full house.  There are no bad seats at Orchestra Hall, and the concert was superb.  The acoustics are phenomenal.  Here’s a photo at the end of the Beethoven piece.

Orchestra Hall Minneapolis MN July 16, 2026

We are short-season ticket holders at the Orchestra, and have been for many years.  This day, I found myself musing about the orchestra and we in the audience as community, in the greater sense.  For a conductor and orchestra to work, there is teamwork beyond what most of us can imagine.  And the chemistry between band and audience is an essential.  What if, I mused, the conductor only recognized one-half of the orchestra.  The other half had no role but to sit there.  What if only half of the house was filled, and they were all sitting on the same side?

I’m thinking of course of our current political nation.  We are certainly no finely tuned orchestra.  Divided we fail.

On a related note. I subscribe to Tim Snyder’s Substack and yesterday he gave the first of ten lectures on successive Wednesdays as described here.  I watched the first 90 minute segment and it was worth the time.   If you have an interest and can access the program, you may find it very worthwhile.

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VOTING

Election Day is November 3 2026.  In my state, Minnesota, here are the dates.  We are over 240,000,000 eligible (18 years or over) voters in the U.S.  For voter registration anywhere, here is the portal.

Our right to vote is available, free, to each and every eligible citizen for each and every elective position on their ballot in our country, the United States of America.

Daily, we are all learning is the cost of a single vote.  Of course, our vote is private; but the results for all of us are not.  We, the people, all of us, need to think about the implications of our single action – or inaction – in 2024.

There are those who are terrified by Democracy and whose campaign is to reduce by any means available the number of people who can and will vote.  This is an active threat.

In the last presidential election, roughly a third voted Republican, Democrat, or not at all.  There is no “Independent” entity, though a small percentage voted with splinter groups of one sort of another.

We – all of us – are accountable for our vote (or non-vote) in every election.  The benefit (or penalty) depends on our own individual free choice.  The buck stops with each of us, individually.

For your, my and our future, at minimum be certain you are registered to vote and that you cast a well-informed ballot for all positions up for election on November 3, 2026.  On July 27, 100 days remain to election day.

You have a single opportunity to select your elected officials for their terms of office, usually two or four years, sometimes one, sometimes six….  Don’t waste your opportunity by not voting, or voting without knowledge of your preferred candidate and the implications of your vote.  Vote well informed.

POSTNOTE: Carlo sent her personal opinion about the notion of denying otherwise qualified person from the vote via the misnamed SAFE Act, now being promoted.

She does not agree.   I agree with her assessment.  Of course, there is much more to be said.  I present Carlo’s as one expressed opinion on a critical issue.

“It is time to stop the misinformation. 

Please take out copies of the Constitution, read it, and use it to stop Donald Trump’s lies and schemes regarding a woman’s right to vote. 

I suggest that Mr. Trump is counting on citizens’ lack of knowledge of the Constitution to continue his campaign of disenfranchisement of a woman’s right to vote.

The SAVE Act

Question!

Does the Republican Party and President Donald Trump with passage of the SAVE Act have the right to override the 19th Amendment with a simple vote in Congress?

The 19th Amendment of the Constitution gives women the unabridged right to vote. 

A birth certificate, a passport, or proof of is citizenship are not stated in that amendment and therefore not required for a woman to vote. 

The 19th amendment states the following:

Nineteenth Amendment

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

[Office of the Federal Register (OFR).]

If Congress wants to change the 19th Amendment The following will be necessary:

Article V, U.S. Constitution

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Article V

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.

[Officer of the Federal Register (OFR)]

The Constitution has not been amended regarding a woman’s right to vote therefore the 19th Amendment stands as written and does not require a woman to produce a passport, birth certificate, or proof of citizenship in order to vote. 

Therefore the right of citizens of the United States right to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Please inform the PEOPLE!

Thank you

CSM”