ettingermentum has just published an excellent guide to protest voting state-by-state. for those of you who are bemoaning your choice between biden and trump, for those of you who are against genocide, and for those of you want to utilize your civic duty to vote: this is how you can pressure joe biden for a ceasefire
Earlier this week, when I was talking with my girlfriend about the Michigan primary results, she asked me if we could also vote uncommitted in our state’s primary. Since we live in Georgia, I knew that we didn’t have that option, so I told her that it wasn’t possible and that I personally planned to use my ballot to write in Jane Fonda. Then she asked me if that vote would be counted, which made me realize something: I didn’t know if it would. I looked it up, and and after a bit of searching, I learned that the answer was no. As a Georgia voter, I have to either vote for one of the three names on the ballot or a “validated write-in candidate” or my vote will be discarded. My year-old plan to vote for Jane had always been DOA, and I had never known it until that moment.
This got me thinking. If I, someone who writes about politics for a living, didn’t know the exact procedures for a protest vote in my primary in my own state, how many prospective uncommitted voters out there actually know what their options are? I presumed that someone out there had published a guide for how to protest vote in each state, but, at least as far as I can tell, such a guide does not exist. To remedy this problem, I decided to create a guide myself. The following is the first ever state-by-state, territory-by-territory cheat sheet for how you can, and cannot, cast a protest vote against this administration in your upcoming Democratic primary.
Category 1: Can Vote Uncommitted
This is the simplest and most straightforward category. In these states and territories, voters are given a Michigan-style uncommitted option on their ballots. These ballots are fully counted in the results like votes for any of the named candidates. If the total uncommitted vote reaches 15% statewide or in a congressional district, it will be awarded delegates.
Although some of these states have additional protest voting options in addition to uncommitted, selecting the uncommitted line is the most direct and straightforward way to register an anti-Biden vote. If available, it should be chosen over all other options, including write-ins, blank ballots, or votes for named candidates like Dean Phillips or Marianne Williamson.
State/territory list:
March 5th: Alabama, Colorado (Called “Noncomitted”), Iowa (Mail-only Caucus), Massachusetts (Called “No Preference”), Minnesota, North Carolina (Called “No Preference”), Tennessee, American Samoa
March 6th: Hawaii
March 12th: Northern Mariana Islands, Washington, Democrats Abroad
March 19th: Kansas
March 23rd: Missouri
April 2nd: Connecticut, Rhode Island, Wisconsin
April 6th: Alaska (Called “Undeclared”)
April 13th: Wyoming (Caucus, Called “Undeclared”)
May 14th: Maryland
May 21st: Kentucky
May 23rd: Idaho (Caucus)
June 4th: Montana (Called “No Preference”), New Jersey, New Mexico
June 8th: Virgin Islands
Category 2: No Uncommitted Option, But Can Vote Write-Ins
Following the set of states and territories that provide straightforward uncommitted option, we reach a small, unique category of primary contests. These states do not provide an uncommitted option, but they do allow for write-in votes, and they take the unique step of tallying every single one of these write-ins in their vote totals. This allows for voters to vote for whoever they want, from Abraham Lincoln to the demiurge, and still see their ballots counted in a broad “write-in” pile of general dissent.
Unlike uncommitted votes, write-in votes will not be able to win delegates as a category—they are only tallied together as a group convenience on election results pages for the sake of convenience. Legally, they all represent votes for entirely different candidates. While it would technically be possible for a write-in candidate to win delegates if they hit the required benchmarks through write-in votes for them, there are currently no efforts to coordinate this. As such, feel free to vote for whoever or whatever you want if you live in these states or territories.
State/territory list:
March 5th: Vermont
May 21st: Oregon
June 4th: Washington, D.C.
Category 3: No Uncommitted Option, Most Write-Ins Not Tallied, But Blank Votes Tallied
Right on the heels of the previous small list with very specific rules is another small list with even more specific rules. Like Category 2, these states do not provide an option to vote uncommitted, but allow for write-ins. Where they differ from the Category 2 states is that they do not count most write-ins in their overall tallies. To save time, only write-in votes for “qualified” write in candidates are considered valid and counted. This means that any write-in vote that says something like “ceasefire,” “uncommitted,” and, yes, “Jane Fonda,” will be discarded.
For most states that do this and don’t provide an uncommitted option, this rules out the possibility of a protest vote beyond voting for the named candidates. These states are the exception, however. Unlike most states, they count blank ballots in their totals. While blank ballots cannot earn delegates, they are counted as a bloc, making them a clear statement of opposition to Biden that avoids providing support for Phillips or Williamson. As such, it is best to send back ballots in these states.
State/territory list:
March 5th: Maine
March 30th: North Dakota (Caucus)
April 2nd: New York
April 28th: Puerto Rico
Category 4: No Uncommitted Option, Most Write-Ins Not Counted, Blank Ballots Not Counted
Category 4 states have easily the most delegates of any section on this list. Unfortunately, they’re also where the options for protest votes become sharply limited. These states have similar rules as Category 3 states. They don’t provide an uncommitted ballot line and don’t tally write-in votes except for those given to qualified write-in candidates. What makes them different from Category 3 states is that they also don’t count blank votes in their tallies.
To register a non-Biden vote in the tallies here, you have to vote for someone pre-approved by the state, whether that be a named candidates on the ballot or a qualified write-in candidate. For most states, this leaves you with Dean Phillips and/or Marianne Williamson if you want your vote to count. Feel free to choose between the two at your own discretion, although you can always vote for another listed candidate or even prick someone from your state’s list of qualified write-in candidates if you really want to avoid voting for either of them.
State/territory list:
March 5th: California (Both Dean and Marianne on ballot), Texas (D and M), Virginia (D and M), Utah (D and M)
March 12th: Georgia (D and M)
March 19th: Arizona (D and M), Illinois (D and M), Ohio (Dean only)
April 23rd: Pennsylvania (Dean only)
May 14th: Nebraska (Dean only), West Virginia (Dean only)
Category 5: No Uncommitted Option, No Write-in Option, Blank Ballots Not Counted
Category 5 is very similar to Category 4, except with one difference. Instead of just making the write-in option functionally useless, these states don’t provide it at all. There’s no way to get around voting for one of the named candidates of you want to cast a protest vote in these states.
State/territory list:
March 5th: Arkansas (D and M), Oklahoma (D and M)
March 12th: Mississippi (No D or M or anyone else. Biden will just get 100% of the vote here. They’re still holding the contest, though.)
March 23rd: Louisiana (D and M)
June 4th: South Dakota (D and M)
June 8th: Guam (Candidate list currently unavailable)
Category 6: No Primary
Here’s the strangest section of them all. These states just cancelled their primaries and handed all of their delegates to Biden. They won’t let you vote against him even if you want to!
State/territory list: Florida and Delaware
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voting ‘uncommitted’ aka utilizing the protest vote is now one of the key strategies to let the biden administration know exactly what you think of their policies. it doesn’t affect your vote in november, but it does very much affect the US policies being enacted on the ground in gaza right now.
think of it as a “fuck you” to joe biden, in the most democratic way possible.
you’re not abstaining. you’re not voting third party. you’re not voting for trump. this is a protest vote. you’re exercising your civic rights and letting joe biden know: fuck you.
Stop Gaza Genocide is a google doc that is constantly updated, which includes how to contact representatives, how to protest, and various activist resources (US centric)
Samidoun provides a constantly updating calendar of protests, and you can submit ones not listed if there’s a protest happening near you (Global)
UNRWA and Care for Gaza are orgs that directly provide general aid and food
Lastly, while not inherently about Palestine, I do want to encourage everyone reading this that If you see a post regarding Palestine- a video, a photo, a livestream, a text post- Archive it with the Wayback Machine.When digital information is prone to deletion and censorship, we cannot afford to lose something as valuable as knowledge.
i do think there is a degree to which certain kinds of Instagram activists have convinced themselves that traumatising themselves in solidarity is a useful form of activism. “I’m having nightmares and crying so much I want to be sick because of all these videos of dying children but I can’t look away while people are getting hurt” I mean don’t you think you’d be able to help more if you weren’t having nightmares and crying all the time?? don’t you think this is a one-way trip to burnout? don’t you think maybe increasing the amount of trauma going around is counterproductive? I dunno bro there’s something to be said for bearing witness but there comes a point where you gotta look hard at yourself and go “am I helping, or am I just making myself suffer so I don’t feel guilty for not suffering while somebody else is experiencing bad shit”
I say “there is no such thing as a thought crime” a lot on my blog. Well, the other side of the coin is there is also no such thing as thought heroics, thought charity or thought activism.
I remember an interview with Rachel Maddow where someone asked her if she felt doing her TV show was activism, and she said absolutely not. She had worked as an activist focused on getting better conditions and treatment for HIV positive people in prison earlier in her career and was very clear on the fact that taking in information, aggregating it, and sharing it with others is NOT activism.
When asked for an example of what she did consider to be activism, she talked about how they were once trying to improve the situation for people with HIV in a specific prison, so they were trying to figure out how to persuade the guy running the prison to meet with them. So they found out where his wife went to church, and who the pastor was, and then they figured out where he golfed, and that there was another member of that country club who was a lawyer that one of them had gone to law school with, so they asked the lawyer to golf with the pastor and talk him into doing a sermon on treating all people with dignity, with an emphasis on treating people with HIV fairly, and to talk about the issues at the prison with the wife of the guy who ran the prison, and they ended up getting that meeting and convincing the guy to take the necessary steps to improve conditions for people with HIV in his prison.
She emphasized that they had a concrete goal, and they developed a strategy made up of concrete steps that they could take and had a shot of working, and then took those concrete steps to reach it. That’s activism. Scrolling online is not and never will be activism.
Conflating taking in information online from unvetted sources with righteous activism and focusing on that instead of taking concrete steps to improve the world is probably a pretty good recipe for ending up as a fringe conspiracy theorist who is scared of 5G and chemtrails.
Holy shit, an active duty American soldier set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC. Before he set himself on fire he introduced himself as “an active duty member of the U.S. Airforce I will no longer be complicit in genocide.” Then repeated “free Palestine” while he was on fire. He did it while wearing his duty uniform too. There is footage of the act. I don’t know how I feel about posting images of a man’s self-immolation but it’s such an unprecedented action to be almost unbelievable without visual evidence. Even with the several self-immolations that occurred on American soil during the Vietnam and Iraq wars, I don’t think I can point to one undertaken by an active duty soldier. I will instead link to the Twitter post where it was first made public under the “more” cut below. It goes without saying that the image is graphic.
Jesus, I just saw this on Twitter. I’m shocked the reporter even put up that one screencap. It may not show the damage he’ll suffer moments later, but it’s so disturbing to see.
Some more information:
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As of a little while ago, the protester was still alive:
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Additional info pls read!!
This doesn’t show the entire tweet thread so I want to explicitly emphasize that the cops DREW THEIR GUNS ON A BURNING MAN and the one guy who finally started spraying him with a fire extinguisher had to yell, “I don’t need more guns I need fire extinguishers” because the cops were still just standing their with weapons drawn.
This is the SECOND self-immolation in only three months, following a woman who self-immolated in front of the Israeli consulate in Atlanta in December in protest of Palestinian genocide.
That incident got virtually no press coverage, similar to how the media barely acknowledged when Wynn Bruce self-immolated in front of the SCOTUS building to protest inaction in the face of climate change.
Mostly asking because it seems like my dash is about 50/50 split between cohost and bluesky rn, would kinda like to know what the actual numbers are. rb for sample size etc etc
a collection of my playlists highlighting black artists in multiple genres of music. a little late for BHM but better late than never <3 enjoy! suggestions and additions are always welcome.
black people created rock: a forever growing playlist of various sub - genres of rock made by black artists and musicians; from classic rock, pop punk, rock rap, metal, post hardcore, etc. from underground bands, popular artists experimenting with their sound, artists from other genres collaborating with rock stars, and more!
a southern gothic tale: country / folk / blues / bluegrass; there are some rap / pop songs that include country elements in them but for the most part it’s what you think.
black alternative: black artists that make music outside of the expectation. alt [rnb/pop], hyperpop, indie [pop/rock], dream - pop, bedroom pop; you name it, it’s probably in here.
black g!rl pvnk !: similar to my black people created rock playlist, except it’s just black women. this playlist also includes rap that takes heavy inspiration from alternative subculture.
juicy fruit, certified bubble yum:[bubblegum] pop by black artists. oftentimes our music gets categorized as rnb / urban / hip hop even when it’s clearly not! there’s been a historical record of black music being put in the wrong categories by reviewers and the academy trying to box black music into a box. while some songs may have rnb elements, it’s clear that they’re classic, well-made, and respected pop songs!
many people were confused about some of my previous posts, so for the sake of clarity i am condensing everything!
tumblr has extremely transphobic moderation practices, often flagging completely innocent posts as explicit, solely for containing trans women in them or mentioning transgenderism. while letting untagged porn in sfw tags (ive literally seen porn tagged as “sfw agere”) and blatent hatespeech, especially twards trans people (just look at the “gender critical” tag) go completely unchecked
recently the CEO of tumblr had a big public hissyfit about people (rightfully) calling him transmysogenistic, going into random trans womens dms to harrass them, and saying that predstrogen saying she “hopes he explodes with hammers and then explodes again and hammers fly everywhere” is a death threat and saying he is calling the FBI on her (repeatedly misgendering her and calling her “it”)
and many bloggers, apon speaking out about it or even making harmless jokes (one trans woman posted a picture of a car and a hammer with the caption “reblog to scare matt” and got nuked for it) and many are very very angry (rightfully) about this whole affair and tumblr in general.
if you would like to look into it i reccomend scrolling the “predstrogen” tag as she is the case most people are talking about at the moment.
So, what can we do? this is clearly an ongoing issue, and, dispite having lost a lawsuit about their transphobic moderation in the past (see : https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21274288-tumblr-nycchr-settlement) its clearly not gonna stop with just user complaints, as staff members are perfectly content to just go scorched earth on users who even so much as lightly poke fun at them
well if you want to help you should contact the human rights commision (i will give clear details further down) ! you dont have to be in the US, nor be an adult to file, and it only takes a few minutes. this is the best and most effective method to fix this, because it hits tumblr where it hurts.
human rights acencies have a lot of legal and financial power and tumblr CAN NOT just ignore them, and given that this will be the seccond time this is happening, the commisions shouldnt be playing nice anymore eaither.
its really important that AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE FILE, and with different examples! while maybe your case might not be enough to prop up a lawsuit on its own, we need to prove a general trend. so every little bit counts!
to respond to another question abt this ive gotten, as for what exactly to report, you should a) write about an act of discrimination youve recieved on tumblr that was eaither administered by a staff member OR that staff refused to give adequate moderation action in
for example : a terf posted some blatent hatespeech targeted twards you, and you reported them, and staff looked at the issue and refused to persecute it.
example 2 : you were unfairly flagged, deleted, or otherwise punished by a staff member and you are queer ( AND the post they banned you for has some kind of tie to your gender, ex : a sfw transition progress photo )
OR b) if you have not personally recieved something like that, please look for other peoples stories (THEY SHOULDNT BE HARD TO FIND, within the last couple of hours trans people have been being banned LEFT AND RIGHT for trying to speak on this. i would reccomend checking some of the tags related to what happened with predstrogen)
and you should describe that incident as best as possible (be sure to disclose that you are speaking for someone else, ideally you should tell the story of someone you know, if possible.) you can also mention any reports you have made twards people posting blatent hatespeech that, opon reveiwing tumblr refused to prosecute dispite it being very obviously against terms of service.
just so nobody gets confused about the filing process, im laying it out in more plain languadge!!
first you should email the SF HRC (san francisco human rights commision), at hrc.info@sfgov.org and say something along these lines :
Hello, I am [full name] from [country or state] and I am filing a complaint against Tumblr, witch is owned by the parent company Automattic Inc. located at 60 29th St, San Francisco, CA 94110.
Despite a legally binding agreement with the NYC DHR, staff members still regularly harrass users based on their gender or sexual orientations. For example : on [date of most recent infraction][describe incident] (if you are describing an incident that did not happen to you specifically, say something like)This incident involves the user [username] who I am not affiliated with (or/)who I am filing on behalf of.
I can be reached for further inquiries about this incident at [email you want to talk over] or [phone number you want to talk over]. (if you would like to be anonymous) However, In the event of legal prosecution against Automattic I would refer to be kept anonymous, where possible, in court proceedings.
alternatively, you can also call the SF HRC at : 415-252-2500, you can use the above text as a starting point for this as well,
for company you wanna put : Automattic and/or Tumblr for address you wanna put : 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 for phone number you wanna put : (646) 513-4321 and for category of discrimination you can put : Discriminatory harassment and basis of discrimination you can put : Gender; Gender identity
you can then use a similar script on the written section of the form.
when describing a specific incident, you should attach as many screenshots and links as possible! (for links, include both a live link and an archival link, so take a capture with the internet archive and have that as an alternative, incase a staff member gets petty.)
this should only take a few minutes at most, and it helps alot!
you can fill this out if you are a minor, and you dont have to be a us resident, please please take the time!!!
and, just to clarify because there are many posts going around that are confused about this
tumblr moved offices to san francisco recently, so their main HQ is at : 60 29th St, San Francisco, CA 94110
they DO still have an office in new york city, and thats where their PREVIOUS HQ was, the address is : 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003
tumblr doesn’t let me add this to the original post, I think it’s too long..
EDITED TO FIX SOME TYPOS
for those who do not have a story of their own to share, nor know of any other people’s experiences who they can speak for i made this second template, via modifying one sent to me by @desidov
Hello, I am [full name] from [country or state] and I am filing a complaint against Tumblr, which is owned by the parent company Automattic Inc. located at 60 29th St, San Francisco, CA 94110.
Tumblr has extremely transphobic moderation practices, often flagging completely innocent posts as explicit, solely for containing trans women and/or mentioning transgenderism. Meanwhile, unflagged or mislabeled porn, blatant hate speech, and doxxing/harassment, especially towards trans people and POC, go completely unchecked.
Notably, the CEO of Tumblr Matt Mullenweg ( onsite as “photomatt” ) has been personally harassing trans women over DMs for speaking out against the transmisogynistic moderation.
He directly and very publicly permanently banned user “predstrogen”, a trans woman, for making a “threat” against him. The statement in question being “I hope photomatt dies a painful death involving him exploding with hammers and then explodes again and hammers fly everywhere”, which he stated was a direct threat on his life and safety, and stated he would be contacting the FBI over.
He made many public statements about this moderation decision, in which he repeatedly misgendered her and referred to her multiple times as “it”. And repeatedly threatened to persecute her legally for trying to speak out about it.
Regarding his moderation action against user predstrogen, he repeatedly flagged and took down SFW photos of her, notably a post with 2 selfies of her showing her transition progress, as NSFW. And refused appeals or any further criticism of this action despite visible backlash.
Many other blogs have been banned unfairly for spreading info about predstrogen ( and other trans women ) being wrongfully flagged or banned. With at least 3 blogs permanently banned immediately after predstogen for criticizing the staff’s decision. ( users being : “nebulaaaaaa” , “mozzarella-firefox” , and “8millionsystem” ).
I am not affiliated with “predstrogen” , “nebulaaaaaa” , “mozzarella-firefox” , or “8millionsystem”, and am filing on their behalf.
Despite a legally binding agreement with the NYC DHR, staff members still regularly harrass users based on their gender or sexual orientations.
Matt Mullenweg has been deliberately hiding evidence, or removing posts and banning users who mention any of the above issues. Often using non standard moderation tools to do so, ones which delete ALL content posted by the offending blog, whereas in normal circumstances photos and videos that are shared by other users with a tie to the banned account remain.
I can be reached for further inquiries about this incident at [email you want to talk over] or [phone number you want to talk over]. (if you would like to be anonymous) However, In the event of legal prosecution against Automattic I would prefer to be kept anonymous, where possible, in court proceedings.
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