Register to Vote!

Exercise your right as an American: Bush or Kerry? Please cast your vote in the Nov. 2 presidential election. The deadlines for voter registration have just passed in many states, but if you live in these 21 states, you still have time to register (ranging from 1 day to a couple of weeks):

CA, CT, ID, IL (Illinois' deadline is today), IA, KS, ME, MD, MA, MN, NE, NM, NY, NC, OK, OR, SD, UT, VT, WV, WI.

Click here to access the U.S. Election Assistance Commission web site for more info. And remember, if you've moved to another state but are still registered in your old state, you can vote via absentee ballot.

All politics, all the time: Speaking of which, I can't seem to avoid listening, reading (or writing, for that matter) about the presidential election, or bumping into people working on the election.

Last Saturday, I attended a monthly meeting of the local chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association, of which I'm a member. We held the meeting at National Public Radio headquarters (one of the AAJA members is a producer there). It's the only place I know that broadcasts NPR news in the bathroom. I washed my hands while listening to yet another news story related to Bush's lackluster and somewhat embarrassing performance in the first presidential debate.

Then one of my AAJA colleagues's friends joined us for lunch. I learned that she's a national political operative for the Kerry campaign. She's helping to mobilize and organize Kerry campaigners in swing states such as Michigan, Nevada and California.