A little advice for a would-be FL voter?

[darkmaestro019]

I just moved back here. I'm transgendered, and due to various BS I still have my OH driver's license and that is frankly not likely to change in the near future, and possibly not even by November due to a large messy tangle of things I have to do in order to a) get a FL license without b) losing my OH one because it has the CORRECT GENDER to keep me from getting outed all over the place. At least until 2010 I can buy beer safely!

I do not feel up to enduring the HIDEOUS treatment I got from bank tellers, cashiers, nightclub doormen/women, you name it--when I had the wrong letter for the gender. Trust me, they notice, and they find it very funny or very revolting, and then they have to pronoun me at the top of their lungs, which embarasses, infuriates, and endangers me.

FL insists on the incorrect gender until I magically have a brazilian dollars for surgery, which won't be in the next five years that I can foresee.

So, um, basically I cannot give them a DL with a FL address, and I can't work out whether I have to, whether I can vote absentee, or what on Earth to do. I have never voted in FL (I did in OH and they wanted my license every time till I complained to the local Dems) Can someone more familiar with FL voting registration help me out? I considered not voting at all, but I've had it up to here with being a second-class citizen in SO many ways that this just doesn't seem FAIR!

Some polls are saying FL is really important--and even if it's doomed to go red I want my name on a list SOMEWHERE that says I didn't approve it! And if it does work out so that I can't vote without somehow endangering myself, I guess I can volunteer in some other way or maybe get a friend or three to vote who might not have done so, or even drive a few people to the polls.

Thanks. Love you guys, and overall glad to be back in the state. :grouphug:

[kdmorris]

1. Vote Absentee

Florida has got to be right behind Alabama as one of the worst places in the country for GLBT people. If you go to a polling place, they will want ID, which you will be unable to provide.

What part of Florida are you living in?

[darkmaestro019]

3. Tiny little whitebread town south of St. Augustine

Not much fun, believe me. St Aug is about half an hour away, and I'm afraid to work locally, not that a strange creature like me is likely to get hired here. I must've applied at forty-fifty places within about thirty-forty miles since I got here at the end of Feb. No dice. So I can't even juggle the gas and paperwork-bribes to attempt a FL DL until I manage that.

EDIT: In OH I went in a suit and tie and just got lucky, they gave me the M. My birth state, SC, will NEVER amend my birth certificate, but will add a little notecard (which outs me to anyone I show it to, of course) and THAT only after surgery, and sometimes they want you to have ALL the surgery (fifty thousand dollars worth, not just top surgery!)

Basically, I intend to "lose" the OH id, and maybe fly there for a weekend and renew it in 2010 if I haven't been able to get it officially changed by then. Yes, I know that's illegal, but I tend to put my own safety day-to-day over what bureaucrats like to do to make it impossible for me to exist.

Most places I've applied for jobs insist on knowing if you've worked under other names. If I tell them what name, I magically don't get called back, of course. And if I don't, which is what I've started doing, I'm sure some of my past jobs won't know who I am--or they'll fire me for lying....(head plus desktop) Gonna go watch Stargate and not think about this for awhile.... : )

[carpetbagger]

2. Here's what to do....

http://election.dos.state.fl.us/online/faq.shtml

Register before you get a Florida DL. (BTW, they have an online reservation system for the Florida DL, it's much better than in the 1980s, the last time I lived in FLA, in and out of DMV in an hour. Not your primary concern, but if you do get the DL, at least it's quicker). When you register, use your SSN as your identifier.

When you vote, use one of the forms of ID on the website above. I suggest a photo credit card, which is valid ID, unless you're lucky enough to have a passport, neighborhood association ID, or student ID. Be ready to quote chapter and verse about the validity of the card when the pollwatchers strike back.

I'm not positive, but it appears that gender is an optional question on the Florida voter registration form. The form says what parts are required, and that's not one of them.

Call your county dem organization if you have questions, or I can try to get some info for you (although I'll be offline until July 1st after tonight).

[darkmaestro019]

4. I don't have a single one of those things.

Passport=money I don't have, and paperwork I don't have.

Credit card=credit I don't have and can't get. In the last two years I've lost pretty much everything but a small carload of belongings--twice.

Student ID=see above.

Basically I think I'll have to vote absentee. I'm not trying to shoot you down, and I do appreciate your help. This is the same cage-bars I keep running into, and until I can afford various bribes (as I like to call the fees for getting copies of this and that and the other thing) I can't do much about any of it.

Which, I think, is exactly why they want to make sure you have to have your papers-please to vote anyway. So broke queers like me don't get a vote, because we SURE aren't voting for the 'pubs.