Better Know a Ballot

Talk-show host Stephen Colbert has set up a website called Better Know a Ballot where you can check on the voting requirements for your state. He's producing videos for each state (starting with North Carolina) to explain the rules.

That's the bright spot of joy for you today. Here are other...spots...of something:

• The president answered questions from "undecided" voters at a town hall on Tuesday, and naturally lied almost every time he spoke. The Washington Post lists his most egregious falsehoods.
• Charlie Pierce believes the administration "couldn't have screwed up the response to the pandemic worse if it sent out battalions of the infected to sneeze on people."
• Attorney General William Barr attacked his own federal prosecutors in a speech yesterday, saying career attorneys have too much power that should go to the political appointees.
• Greg Sargent lists 7 ways the administration is "using government to corrupt the election."
• Megan McArdle explains how the language of Fox differs from English.
• The BBC's Reality Check takes on the president's unique understanding of forestry.
• Here in Chicago, the 98-year-old bar Southport Lanes will close for good on September 27th.
• I hope they didn't use Fortune Food Product's ingredients in their food, because the FDA has ordered them to stop production "after federal inspectors allegedly witnessed live rodents and other food safety violations at the East Pilsen facility."
• On this day in 1934, Lane Tech High School opened at its current location in North Center. At the time, it was the largest high school in the world, with 7,000 (all male) students.

OK, one more bit of good news: The Economist reported this week that the southern hemisphere had almost no flu cases this winter, because pandemic response measures work on influenza just as they work on Covid-19.

I would like to register to vote, however, even though I was born in Los Angeles, I came to Canada in 1989 to take care of my mother who had been in an accident and we sort of settled here in that 17 year period and found it difficult to go home again . We have a "base" here now and as people who have aged know, it is easier and less confusing than leaving that space with the bank, doctor, dentist, podiatrist, library, shopping center with people who know your name, grocery store, hair dresser, neurologist, and the nursing home we finally moved into. How can I register to vote?

Thank you for the comment. First, you must be a US citizen to vote in most American elections, though a number of municipalities around the country allow aliens to vote if they have lived in the jurisdiction for long enough. Second, most American jurisdictions have residency requirements for all voters. Illinois, for example, requires that you live in the state for 30 days before the election. However, you can still vote for president, and possibly for the US Senate and the US House. The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act allows all citizens to vote absentee for federal offices. Here's information from the Dept of Justice: https://www.justice.gov/crt/uniformed-and-overseas-citizens-absentee-voting-act And here’s more information from the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/04/smarter-living/how-to-vote-abroad-overseas-expat.html I hope this helps.