Opinion: The election isn’t over on Nov 3rd, stay ready

“My vote doesn’t matter.”

“Your vote doesn’t matter.”

“All politicians are the same, and nothing ever changes.”

We hear these things constantly – from the streets to our Instagram comments.

There’s a reason why we are hearing this constantly. Because the people in power want you to believe it. The Trump Administration and its billionaire backers want to stop you from voting, so they can cling to power and make themselves richer (and more powerful) at our expense.

They know they’re unpopular. Our families and our communities have been paying the cost of their authoritarian agenda for the past two years. Masked ICE thugs on our streets. Skyrocketing costs of living. Trans kids targeted just for being themselves. Wasteful wars while working families struggle.

They’re scared of your vote, because when you vote, you call them out. If our votes were not important, the Trump Administration would not be so aggressively and hamhandedly trying to undermine them by shrinking the electorate, silencing opposition and deciding in advance whose vote gets counted.

We’ve seen how the Trump Administration uses the levers of power to criminalize and silence dissent, whether in the streets or at the ballot box. In the lead-up to the midterms, we’ve seen federal agents go door-to-door intimidating voters under false claims of election security, a weaponized DOJ filing sham lawsuits, a project to dismantle the Voting Rights Act and suppress Black voters, redistricting battles, attempts to interfere with mail-in voting, and blackmailing states for their voter rolls. Imagine what we haven’t seen.

No matter what you may hear, there are currently no credible threats to our election systems here in New York. Our elections are safe and locally run, just like they always have been. Voting remains our first and strongest line of defense.

When you vote, you join a chorus of voices that become too loud to ignore. And when we all vote, our elections become too big to rig. Early voting is underway and half a million New Yorkers have already voted early, with millions more to join them by Election Day, November 3rd. But this year, our job doesn’t end at the ballot box. That’s just the start.

The electoral process spans from Election Day to when Congress is seated on January 3rd. This is the critical window of time where we face the greatest potential for interference. Attempts to undermine the election won’t necessarily be a single explosive moment like January 6th. It could be a foggy attempt to flood the zone with misinformation and bogus litigation based on flimsy, invented excuses. But we don’t need to look to Alaska or Mississippi for harm being wrought, or ways to fight back.

If the Trump Administration succeeds, it puts us on a path to sliding further into authoritarianism. We must pull out every tool in our toolbox to stop it. That’s why we are asking New Yorkers to pledge and prepare to hit the streets – and stay there – until bad actors back down.

We have to show up and show out before, during, and after the election to ensure our voices are heard, and our votes are counted.  It’s our responsibility to stand up, especially in a powerful cultural, economic, and political center like New York City.

Elected officials and community leaders must follow suit and lead by example. No one should hide behind “norms” in a fundamentally abnormal era. We need to alert our constituents in advance to the possibility of the Trump Administration's efforts to sabotage the election, and we need to prepare to be standing shoulder to shoulder with them in the streets if sabotage happens.

We are ready to protest after Election Day, if needed. Until and through November 3rd, though, our job is to make sure our democracy functions by participating in it. Vote and vote early. Vote in defiance of those who want to keep us quiet, who want to treat us like we don’t matter. It is our moment to unequivocally reject authoritarianism in the United States. It is our moment to stand up for our communities, our democracy and our futures. New York is ready.