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Mercury Retrograde Survival Guide

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Mercury is the planet that governs our thinking, attitudes, & ideas, how you listen to, and process information. When a planet goes retrograde, it's like it's primary functions get turned inwards.

The 2020 election is on November 3rd, 2020, the exact date that Mercury goes station direct. This means the whole period leading up to the election is more likely to be influenced by misinformation, misunderstandings, and delays.

Don't 😱 Panic!
This guide is here to help you vote with confidence, download this to your phone (it's clickable!), share with friends, and take it with you into the polling booth.

We've got you covered with:

  • A Mercury Rx Voting Plan
  • Tips to Throw A Voting Party For Your Friends
  • Voting Tools and Tips
  • Vote From Home Check List
  • Voting In Person Advice
  • Mercury Retrograde Fun Facts

Every State Has Different Rules, Check Yours Here! 

Voting can be a total boner, so we decided this year to make it a party! Plan COVID safe Zoom parties to figure out how you want to vote, and/or to fill out your ballots together.

🔮 Set up a Pros & Cons ZOOM!
Researching the issues can be intense so we came up with a simple strategy to make it a light lift: plan a Zoom party where everyone invited has a different election or ballot measure to research. This is a little move we call crowdsourcing the ballot, babies. 

Here's How You Do It!

  1. Schedule a Zoom party with a bunch of folx that live in your area and are voting on the same ballot measures.
  2. Assign everyone invited a ballot measure to research. (visit Vote411 for a good place to start your research)
  3. Each person comes with a list of facts about the measure/law/person to be elected, and a balanced list of their Pros and Cons.
  4. Discuss! Kvetch! Explore! Moan! Thrill!

🔮 Pour a Cosmic Commune (M)Cocktail
Rachel Budde of Fat and The Moon has created a centering bev for when celestial beings on the fritz gets personal. Get The Recipe!

🔮 Fill out your Ballots
Get it filled out, signed, and in the mail.
Not registered to vote by mail? Fill out your sample ballot so you are ready to go for early voting or come election day.
The goal of this is not to reach a consensus and share your decisions. Every state has different rules, in some states it is “illegal” to vote in groups. It is ok, however to educate each other on candidates and ballot measures and then go make your decisions and fill out your ballots. Read the instructions on your ballot and if you have questions, send us note!

🔮 Step 1: Define your values
Write down issues that are important to you.For example you could care a lot about: Environment, Education, Fair Wages, Women’s Health

🔮 Step 2: Research the Issues
An informed voter makes an informed choice. But there is so much information out there and it can get quite overwhelming.

Here are three organizations with the straight facts for everything on your local ballot:

Vote411:
Look up your exact ballot by zipcode to see what you will be voting for

Ballotpedia:
TBH, it’s not you: voting is way more complicated than it should be. Our trick is to find info on every race/issue you’ll be voting on in advance.

🚨FYI: Local issues are more important than you think! Ballotpedia has identified over 20 local police-related ballot measures on the Nov. 3 election, and they’ve all been proposed following the murder of George Floyd. These measures concern police practices, oversight boards and auditors, police staffing and funding levels, and recordings from police body and dashboard cameras are all on the ballot at the local level. Learn more at Ballotpedia.

Factcheck.org:
Curious if a statement a politician made is true? This is the page to check!

🔮 Step 3: Get Help
There are many non-profit and research organizations that exist to educate the public and elected officials on specific issues. Many of these organizations create voting guides to help people vote for the best person on that issue. To find an organization that matches your values, search - The Issue - Your State - Voting Guide. For example, when you search "California + Climate + Voting Guide" gives you the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) voting guide for California. Yes, this system isn't perfect. Let's get more voter guides out there in the future, did we say crowd sourcing?

Here is a list of additional progressive voting guides, to help you get some answers for your local ballot:

🔮 Carefully Open the Ballot
One of the most common problems people have is ripping their ballots or the security envelopes by opening envelopes with letter openers or too forcefully.

🔮 Don't Get Creative!
To mark your ballot, use only a black or blue ink pen. Do not use any other ink color.

🔮 Read the instructions
Every state has different voting rules,
DO NOT vote for more candidates than indicated under each office title. Completely darken the whole circle next to your choice.

🔮 Check Both Sides of the Ballot and Put the Whole Thing Back Together
The ballot may have two sides. Be certain to check the reverse side of the ballot and make sure to sign your name! (The signature can be on the envelopes in some states) Put your ballot in its security sleeve before placing it in the return envelope and don’t forget the stamp!

🔮 Accidents happen!
If you make a mistake, return your ballot to the election/polling location and get a provisional ballot. Do not attempt to erase or correct any marks made in error.

Expect that things will get wonky! Delays, confusion & other annoyances are on the menu for us as Mercury stations direct.

Download to your phone to take with you on election day! 

🔮 Double Check Your Polling Place & Check Again
Just because you voted there in previous years, does not mean it’s your polling place for this election.

🔮 Bring ID
36 states require a picture ID requiring voters to show some form of identification at the polls. This includes a Driver’s Licenses, State-Issued ID Cards, Military ID Cards, or Passports. Questions about your state?

🔮 Polling Place Mishigas*
See something say something! If you see voter intimidation or voters being turned away call:
866-687-8683
*Yiddish for irresponsible silliness

🔮 Already Voted?
Sign up to work at a polling place or be a polling observer. Voters might feel assured to see you there.

🔮 Mercury was named after the Roman god Mercury, the messenger to the gods.

🔮 Mercury changes zodiac signs about every 3 to 4 weeks, takes about one year to move through all the zodiac, and goes retrograde about 3 times per year.

🔮 Mercury is not in retrograde, it is retrograde, or otherwise appearing to move in a retrograde (aka backwards) motion. Grammatical errors like this are so retrograde!

🔮 Want to know more about Mercury Retrograde? 

Get The Shirt

Just because the planet is moving backward doesn't mean our county needs to. Get the shirt that lets them know!

100% of proceeds go toward the operational costs of building the Zodiac The Vote community and supporting organizations fighting for voting rights, especially within marginalized communities.