In the USPS today, my wife and I received an updated voter card from the Virginia Board of Elections. Naturally, as someone who is aware of the tricks the Republican Party is attempting to pull nationwide to disenfranchise people (I have seen the number as high as 5 million who are in danger of not being able to vote), I treated this mailing with some skepticism in our Republican-dominated Commonwealth.
I can't quite figure out why it was important THIS YEAR to update the voter card. I have had my old one for many years, and it has worked just fine. We've not moved in 10 years, so no change there. My voting location hasn't changed....Essentially, everything is the same. So why the new card?
The envelope was nondescript and could easily be mistaken for junk mail. In fact, even though the return address is the State Board of Elections, the presentation is questionable, in my opinion. If my wife had not told me it was important, it may have been torn in half and sent to the recycling bin (the usual fate of junk mail). I imagine that I would have been turned away come election time since I would not have had a "new" voter card. Very strange in light of attempts to make voting harder for folks elsewhere in the country.
Is this a shenanigan on the part of the Republicans that concerned citizens should attend to, or do I need to don the tinfoil hat and go back to grading papers?