Theres a lot more on your ballot than just the presidential electionPublished inThe Medium BlogSent as aNewsletter3 min read11 hours ago-- Welcome to the 200th issue of the Medium Newsletter, which (and we definitely didnt plan this) coincides with U.S. Election Day. Some of the most-read issues so far? A philosopher on the meaning of LLMs, the underrated rewards of cold-calling, plus: Go small and go home. Thank you for reading!Issue #200: working the polls and phoning a friendBy Harris SockelYoure going to hear a lot about the presidential election today too much, probably so Im going to hook a left and recommend learning a little (just a little!) about everything else you might find on your ballot.Like my personal favorite ballot section: props (you know, propositions). Instead of voting for people, you can vote for an idea. One of the five props on my New York City ballot, just to give you a sense of how boring-yet-important these are, would ostensibly give the NY Department of Sanitation (heroes) more power to hold street vendors accountable for trash around their food trucks. If you dig a little deeper, though, turns out it may be a ploy to give the mayor more power over small business owners.Anyone can preview their ballot here. If you have a sec, Google each prop and read what yays and nays are saying. If you cant find much, thats a red flag! Maybe it was created by a small group of elected officials pushing an agenda.One more thing: In 24 states (not in mine), citizens can add their own props to the ballot. On Medium, intrepid LA citizen and organizer Michael Schneider describes how he did just that. It took three years! With the help of friends, neighbors, and professional signature-gatherers, he got the 61,000 signatures needed to propose (and pass) a new law leading to miles of safe bike and bus lanes across LA.Also today: Confessions of a Pennsylvania poll workerDid you know that in Pennsylvania, the poll worker handbook is 67 pages long? Or that each polling machine prints four tapes reporting all the votes, and a human poll worker needs to sign off on each tape? Those are a few of the intricacies Daniel McIntosh, PhD., reveals in his Medium story about what hell be doing today making sure every vote is accurately counted in Allegheny County, PA.There may be problems, but they arent at the polling places. The biggest obstacles to voting in Pennsylvania arent at the polling booth or the precinct level. People who come to our precinct looking for fraud (and each major party has people on hand to do just that) walk away bored. Your daily dose of practical wisdom: Phone a friendWhen life turns difficult be it election anxiety or an on-coming panic attack theres often nothing that can help faster than a simple phone call with someone you know.sunrise in nyc today, 6:30am