Today I Voted in the Primary

Today I voted in the primary.

Voting by Mail

Lately, Trump has been trying to restrict or eliminate voting by mail. In particular, he’s been trying to get the Post Office to refuse to deliver ballots, but only in states that did not surrender their voting info to him, so he can purge/disenfranchise Democrats.

Fortunately, pro-democracy organizations like Marc Elias and Democracy Docket have been fighting this in court, and have won 18 out of 18 times so far:

So here in Massachusetts, I got my mail-in ballot for the September Democratic primary today. Of course I filled it out immediately!

But… to avoid Post Office shenanigans, I took it directly to our Town Clerk’s office. Normally I’d show a photo of my ugly ol’ hairy hand stuffing it in the drop-box. But I got a bit confused about which drop-box, so I went inside to the clerk’s office to ask, where they graciously took it directly. (I was too embarrassed to ask to photograph them taking it.)

The Only Part That (Probably) Matters

This is a Democratic primary in Massachusetts, so it’s only to be expected that many Democrats were not opposed within their own party. The interesting race though was for US Senator, between incumbent Sen Ed Markey and challenger Rep Seth Moulton. My take:

• Markey is old, but is a reliable liberal.
• Moulton is younger, but very much not a reliable liberal vote. He’s more of a squishy ‘centrist’, who waffles on trans rights, holds millions in investments in military contractors with business before the government, does not support Medicare for All, and so on.

In the end, I went for Markey. I’m sick and tired of waffling Democratic ‘centrists’ who sabotage all the progressive polices I want, like Manchin & Sinema did during the Biden administration. Yes, I despise the gerontocracy of our elderly leadership. But some degree of commitment to sane and humane policy is far more important to me.

So Markey got my primary vote.

The important vote will be in November, to make sure no Republicans within my blast radius get any votes at all. Not for any imaginable office, not under any conceivable circumstance.

The Weekend Conclusion

Look here soon for an update, when I check the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s web site to verify the ballot has been received, certified, and is ready for counting.

(Ceterum censeo, Trump incarceranda est!)

(Et ceterum censeo, index Epsteiniani divulganda est!)

Addendum 2026-Aug-04: Ballot Accepted & Ready for Counting

It took several days longer than I though it would, but periodic checking of the web site of the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth shows that my ballot has now been officially received and is ready for counting.

No, we should not have to do this. Yes, we do have to do this in order to avoid Republican electoral mischief.

Addendum 2026-Aug-09: Comparing with the DSA Recommendations

When I first heard of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) some years ago, my first thought was that their name was pure rage-bait for Republicans. But then, pretty much everything pro-democracy causes Republican rage these days. I looked down their list of policy preferences and agreed with maybe 80% or 90% of what they advocated, and so filed them away as a useful source of recommendations in the future.

Today somebody pointed me at the Democratic primary voting recommendations for Massachusetts voters from the DSA. (Obviously, there is no set of DSA Republican recommendations, beyond “please don’t do that”.)

Let’s look at their choices versus the ones I remember making:

We agree on Markey over Moulton, for approximately the same reasons. Markey, now age 80, is an example of the irritatingly aged Democratic gerontocracy that just cannot let go of power. Moulton is younger. But therewith ends the list of Moulton’s virtues: he loses on LGBTQ rights, has fecklessly recommended Democrats throw trans people under the bus in the name of illusory centrism, seems a fan of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, and so on.

So… in DSA’s words, choosing Markey: “This is not a difficult choice.”

For Representative, here in Massachusetts 5, I voted for Clark, the incumbent. I knew she was entrenched in the Democratic leadership whose lack of fight I despise, but to pick a new representative would mean losing a voice with seniority. Also, I hadn’t even heard of her two challengers.

Looking at the scorecard, it seems either of the two challengers would have been better. But… giving up a senior seat in favor of an unknown who has somehow avoided even appearing on my radar? That seems risky. Honestly, after reading the DSA recommendations here, I could have gone either way.

In the Mass State Senate race, I chose Brownsberger over Lander. That’s based on the fact that I didn’t know much about Lander, but had — very briefly and indirectly — interacted with Brownsberger a couple times. Brownsberger does have reasonable constituent outreach.

But, some years ago, when he ran for the US House, I had an annoying experience with him. He said in some press release or other that he’d work very hard to be bipartisan and cooperate with Republicans. This was anathema to me; you cannot work with people who will not accept your legitimacy and who advocate policies that seem to me to be outright evil. It was just pre-emptive caving in. I said as much to a friend who was one of his campaign staffers. That percolated up the chain and resulted in an email to me from Brownsberger saying in essence: “What’s wrong with planning to work with Republicans?” Buddy… if you gotta ask, you ain’t gonna understand the answer.

So, in retrospect, if I’d seen this DSA sheet beforehand, it would have tipped me toward Lander. Sigh.

As for the Mass House race in my district, I honestly don’t remember? I think I voted for Rogers over Ganguly, but didn’t have a lot of information to go on. This DSA recommendation sheet would have been useful in solidifying my vote for Rogers. Seems like Ganguly didn’t even bother with taking positions for the DSA to evaluate!

I really wish I’d seen this earlier, since I probably would have reconsidered one or two of my primary votes based on their research. But… speed seemed important too.

Advice to Mass DSA folk: Get your recommendations out earlier and louder in the future! You might pick up a few more early voters.

Well enough, though.

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Notes & References

Nope.