Mother Hubbard goes to Jones Street

A quick personal adventure story ...

On June 19th the Democratic Women of NC had our Legislative day. That was also a big push day for H91, the same day voter registration bill. Before the speakers started for the gathering of Democratic women, I went to see if I could drop in on our Johnston County legislators. It was my first ever time on Jones street (well, since my 8th grade field trip anyway) and I was excited and nervous and wondering what the heck I thought I was doing and determined to have my average voice heard ... and ALL that stuff.

It was a very busy day for Legislators and I was only able to speak with James Langdon, R-House District 28.

I caught him between meetings. The Representative and I sat down to speak. He told me he was

"not going to vote for that bill."

I congenially asked what it was about the bill he didn't like. He asked me to tell him why I supported it first. :) He obviously wanted to hear what I had to say, without feeding off anything he had considered.

I fell back on points/issues with H91 that someone (I think NCVoter) had posted at blueNC. They were effective points of discussion. (lesson: blogging matters.) I also told him about my son's registration experience. He registered when he turned 18 without a driver's license. He doesn't have one, for many reasons, not the least of which is financial, and also because he's in school away from home and doesn't own a car. I noted a visible raising of the eyebrows when I recalled that experience for Mr. Langdon.

We finally came to the big sticking point for Rep. Langdon ... the deal breaker for him. He had been led to believe that the ballot a same day registrant would fill out would be the same ballot everyone else used and it would be run through the counting machine that same day with everyone else's votes, and it would be irretrievable if it was found that person was wrongly registered.

I allowed as how he was absolutely right ... a system like that would indeed be unworkable and unacceptable. But that I didn't think it would work that way. I asked if it would make a difference to him if those ballots were provisional ballots that were not counted until the registration of the new voter was validated and verified. (I was unclear on the exact mechanism, but I knew I had read that the new registrant ballots would be held aside, pending verification of eligibility status.) We had to chew that bone around a couple of times, but in the end he said it would make a difference. When I left Representative Langdon's office he said he would look into that point.

Turns out, the bill (H91) requires same day voter registrants to fill out an Absentee ballot, seal it, turn it over to elections staff and upon verification of that voter's eligibility, his/her ballot is then counted.

I just checked the last House vote on H91. It was just a vote to concur or not concur with the Senate version, and I haven't talked to him yet, but I think Mr. Langdon did what he said he'd do. He looked into what sort of ballot a same day registrant would fill out and it appears he got a satisfactory answer.

Up until June 26, Representative Langdon had voted with the minority on every vote H91 came up for; readings, amendments ... everything.

On June 26, he voted with the majority.

Don't ever doubt blogs matter. They do. They are the town squares, the beauty shops and crossroads stores of 21st century American politics.

Don't ever doubt your letters or phone calls matter. They do. It is how we participate after the ballots are counted and the winner decided, no matter the tag letter after his or her name.