theunitofcaring:

Today I finally managed to re-register to vote. I’ve been meaning to do this since we moved, but it was complicated and the state of California’s website was a hassle and it required me to mail things and the baby ripped up the thing they mailed me and altogether it was just not going to happen. The reason it finally happened was that I asked for help.

I filled out a short form on vote.org, so I didn’t have to interact with California’s website. They mailed me something to print, and my housemate printed it and brought it to me to sign. I signed it and he put it in the mail. Now I’m registered.

If you’re like me and find bureaucracy interactions terrifying and hard, and don’t expect to succeed at them and as a result you often don’t try, I recommend this: set a timer for ten minutes. Go to vote.org and spend ten minutes taking steps that move you closer to being registered to vote. You are reasonably likely to succeed and be registered by the end of that, or to have enough momentum to continue. This matters – it may not matter if just you do it, but it matters very profoundly if all the people like you do it.

You are not a bad person because you haven’t gotten this figured out yet. You are not a failure because you haven’t gotten this figured out yet. You are not less worthy of a voice in our democracy because you haven’t got this figured out yet.