EARLY VOTING–USE IT OR LOSE IT

Texas has more political problems than I care to enumerate while sober, but one thing we do have is a very wide early voting window. The idea is to increase turnout by making a hard-won democratic privilege as convenient as picking up a fifth of milk on the way home. Early voting started Oct. 23 but you still have until Nov. 3–that would be this Friday–to take advantage of a truly progressive election-friendly idea.

Of course, if you’re like some of the folks in this tiny slice of the FB Nation, you whine, “But I don’t know where to go to vote early.” Sure, you can find myspace and youtube, but you can’t find the Dallas County election department website? No problem. I live to serve. Just go here, and find out where you can do the right thing any time the rest of the week.

Two heads-up: First, you can cross-vote on the electronic machines. So if you vote a straight ticket for either party but want to vote for someone else in one of the down-ballot races, for example, you can just click for the other name in that race and it won’t negate your other choices.

Two: the bond issues are separated, so you have to vote for each one of them (or against, depending on your inclination). There’s no way to just vote for all or none. But vote for all. I mean, really.