Editorial

Voting to the Moon and Back H uge thanks from the Montecito Journal to Maureen McDermut & Associates for sponsoring this week’s home delivery! We are doing everything possible to get to you during this difficult moment.

In the blink of an eye, the world has changed. On Sunday evening my daughter wanted takeout from a local Mexican restaurant, but my husband questioned whether he was potentially risking his life for a burrito – albeit a good one. Just like that, so many ordinary, mundane tasks have become potentially life-threatening ventures out into a scientific unknown.

If the coronavirus has changed the complexion of picking up takeout, I wondered, what must it be like for the workers at Los Arroyos, or at Vons, or Montecito Village Grocery, or at the post office? Picking up takeout my husband would be interacting with just one stranger. But the workers at these establishments are interacting with dozens of random humans throughout the day, of unknown hygiene and health, so that we can feed our families in the safety of Purelled-to-death biodomes we call our homes. There is not enough gratitude in the world for these workers who take such risks each day so that we can continue to feed our families and live some semblance of a normal life.

The new surreality is that so many mundane tasks we used to not think about have become, overnight, potentially life-threatening rolls of the dice.

Here’s an interesting nuance of voting law I’ll bet you didn’t know. Texas Administrative Code Rule 81.35 was signed into law by George W. Bush when he was governor. It’s the law that allows astronauts to vote from space and even vote early.

Now with Election Day slightly more than half a year away, and a recent Supreme Court ruling curtailing vote-by-mail in Wisconsin, one of our unalienable rights – voting – must join the list of formerly ordinary but now potentially deadly acts. Shouldn’t all of us have not just the right to vote, but the right to vote safely? I am saddened by the Supreme Court’s decision on Monday that forces many Wisconsin voters to potentially risk coronavirus infection in order to vote in person. And it got me to thinking. What if our January 9, 2018 catastrophic event had happened on November 5, 2018? And what if our only choice had been to vote in person at our assigned polling booth in Montecito, where first responders were still risking their own lives to search for survivors? That would have made for a difficult choice.

Businesses are asking customers to stay home and shop online. Most banking is done online. Doctors are examining patients online. School is being conducted online, as are graduations. So why would we not, in light of this pandemic, ensure a way to execute our right to vote online? Very soon every computer and phone will be opened via fingerprint, if not retinal scan. Or both. So why would we quarantine this one foundational aspect of our democracy – voting – from

EDITORIAL Page 364

3,000 PROJECTS • 600 CLIENTS • 30 YEARS • ONE BUILDER

Building Peace of Mind.

BUILD WITH US | (805) 966-6401 | GIFFINANDCRANE.COM

• Available for urgent care. • Infection control protocol followed, with all areas sanitized including wait area and exam room. 1483 E. Valley Road, Suite M | 805.969.6090