It occurred to me some time back that I have to vote early if I want my ballot to count.
Dadgummit!
We’ll be unable to vote Nov. 5, as we’ll be very busy that day. That means we’ve got to troop down to the Randall County Courthouse Annex and cast our vote early on a number of key ballot measures.
The state of Texas wants to amend its constitution nine more times, so the Legislature has referred nine amendments to voters; Amarillo City Hall wants to amend its century-old city charter and it, too, has referred some amendments to its residents; finally, the city is asking voters for permission to spend $36.5 million on a bond issue to build a recreational center in the southeast corner of the city.
This is a big deal. It’s also why I always prefer to vote on Election Day.
I’ve been voting in virtually every election dating back to 1972, when I became old enough to vote. The 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, was ratified the previous year and that meant 1972 would be the first year I could vote. I turned 21 on Dec. 17, 1970, so my age put me in the middle of some kind of calendar vortex, meaning that I was too young to vote in 1970, but old enough to vote two years later.
It was a huge moment for me. I loved the form of pageantry associated with it. I loved waiting for my turn, visiting with fellow voters about what we were about to do.
You know what? I still enjoy voting on Election Day for that reason — and because of one more important factor.
Voting early — especially in elections involving living, breathing candidates — exposes voters to being snookered by their candidate. Suppose you vote for John Q. Candidate on the first day of early voting and then the story breaks the very next day that Mr. Candidate was caught stealing from Grandma’s bank account. Name the crime, you get the idea.
You cannot take your vote back. You’re stuck with having voted for a crook.
That’s another key reason I prefer waiting until Election Day to vote. I realize fully that you run into the same potential consequence the day after Election Day. John Q. Candidate could be caught committing a felony between that day and the time he is supposed to take office. But you’ve limited the possibility at least enough to be reasonably confident your vote won’t be wasted on such a bum.
The only thing worse than voting early is voting by mail, which is the law in some states — including the state where I was born, Oregon. You mark your ballot, stick it in an envelope, mail it to the secretary of state’s office — and pray to God in heaven it gets there, right?
No thanks.
Well, I’ll suck it up this time and cast my vote early. I still won’t like it. Voting early, though, is far better than not voting at all. At least I’ll preserve my right to complain about my government.