Imagine this you’re talking to friends and you start talking about cars. Naturally you work the following statement into the conversation: “I’m never going to buy a Tesla, they have so many recalls, are unreliable, lie about their range, and have poor build quality”. What you just did might matter a lot more than you think because perhaps your friends will repeat what you just said and the message spreads. What you said may also surface when it’s time for them to buy a car.

Or you’re talking about social media and your friend says he’s tired of the content on social media. You could say, yeah I totally agree. I deleted my Twitter/X, Facebook and Instagram account. I now use Lemmy, Bluesky and Mastodon. My mental health has improved a lot after making the switch.

Now imagine this: you’re talking to someone who you’re very good friends with but you’re never talked politics before. This can perhaps be a little risky but what if you bring up something small and innocent that could be used to gauge their views. Or just listen to their thoughts without judgement and see where they stand. Perhaps you’ll find that you both agree on things you never knew you did and then you become allies and you work together to make a difference in your community.

Or most importantly if you have friends who share your political views. If you do please ask them these questions: Are you registered to vote? Is your registration up to date, active and current? Do you have a ride to get to the nearest/designated polling place? Do you know all the upcoming election dates and primaries? Sadly we need this question too: Republicans are trying to suppress your vote: do you have up to date identification and paperwork?

There’s a concern that Republicans are going to try to pass more voter suppression laws in hopes of shifting the results in their favor. We can fight against this both by doing everything we can to prevent these policies from getting passed in the first place and if sadly they become law let’s still win anyway despite the additional challenge. Remember people throughout history fought hard for the right to vote, the best way to preserve your rights is to exercise it. Even if it becomes harder to vote it’s still imperative that you do it! Also there’s not much harm in having up to date paperwork. In fact it might be beneficial for other reasons in the future.

Here’s information about voter ID laws by state: https://www.usa.gov/voter-id

Here’s my suggested list of actions. Hopefully you won’t need to do all of these to vote but you might still find benefit to doing these things anyway because it could help you later in life.

1. Up to date voter registration. Check to make sure it’s active and accurate. How do this will depend on where you live so check locally using official information from your local government for example their official website (which will typically end with .gov or (two letter state initials).gov) or calling them with their current phone number.
2. Ensure your driver’s license is valid and up to date if you drive or consider alternative forms of acceptable voter ID if you don’t.
3. Get a certified copy of your birth certificate
4. Apply for a passport (may also be helpful if the country were to go really bad and if there’s an emergency you never know if you’ll need this, also you can travel internationally which is great!)
5. Social security card. You can get a free replacement if you don’t have one.

Helping your friends vote can make a big difference because they may feel empowered to help their friends too!