Vote-Shaming; or, How Virginia Democrats Dodged a Bullet Last Weekend

Election Day is tomorrow and, as usual, I won't be voting for anybody; I'll only be voting against various candidates who give me the screaming horrors. Tomorrow, that'll mean voting against various sex-obsessed social conservatives who think whatever ails America can be solved if only the government could force women to bear children they don't want, and force gays back into the closet. In other words: when there aren't any libertarian candidates, I'll be voting for the Jackass over the White Elephant Party.

Yet a boneheaded publicity stunt which the state Democratic Party mailed me last weekend made me mad enough to almost consider staying home. Check out the ridiculously oversized postcard which came in the mail for me last Saturday (I included the dollar bill to provide a sense of scale):

It's my unsolicited “Voter Report Card,” sent courtesy of VaDemocrats.org and castigating me for having a voting history “below Virginia's average,” as records show I voted in the 2012 general election, but not those in 2010 or 2008.

Since the entire point of those “report cards” is to shame people into voting, I will only say: the Virginia Democrats are damned lucky I'm not the vindictive type, else I'd gladly find some Dem-hating right-wing lawyer to bring a nuisance lawsuit charging them with slandering my good character (civic duty edition): I did vote in 2008 and 2010; I just didn't vote in Virginia because I lived in Connecticut at the time.

In other words: those self-righteous busybodies tried shaming me for not committing voter fraud.

Although, to be fair: were I still in Connecticut, I'd be just as furious to receive a “voter report card” praising me for having voted in three out of the last three elections (not to mention that in 2008, I spent just under six days as a registered Republican so I could vote for Ron Paul in the primary. Spoiler: he didn't win).

On Saturday I left a message on one of the many various Virginia Democratic Party Facebook pages:

Friendly advice from a northern Virginia voter who does NOT want to see social conservatives win the election: kindly tell your buddies at Vademocrats.org to do their homework BEFORE sending out those insulting "voter report cards." I just got one castigating me for not having voted in the 2008 and 2010 general elections. Actually, I DID vote in those elections; I just didn't vote in Virginia because I didn't live here at the time. If you MUST insult people who'd previously been inclined to vote for you, at least try not to do it three days before the election; that doesn't leave enough time for voters to forget the insult.