Tag Archives: Election Day

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Election-day voting still produces excitement

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We went to the polls, we voted, we returned home … all in a span of about 20 minutes.

The time we spent at our Randall County, Texas “voting center” didn’t amount to much. However, it remains one of the things I love to do every time they have an election.

For those of us who live in Texas, that’s a frequent occurrence, indeed. We vote on everything around here.

Election Day is a big deal. I wish we would place more emphasis on it than we do. Instead, U.S. political media and politicians have become enamored with early voting. Get your ballots cast early and avoid the rush, they say.

I have heard some staggering numbers relating to early voting here in Randall County. More than 43,000 ballots were cast early for the 2016 election, a new presidential election record. Consider this: In 2012, nearly 49,000 total ballots were cast. If the percentage turnout this time is anywhere near what it was four years ago, voter traffic at the voting centers is going to mighty sparse.

We expected a larger crowd than what we saw this morning when we went to the polling place.

Whatever the case, this event always gives me a thrill.

Yes, we’ve all commented — or heard others comment — on the dismal nature of this presidential campaign. I thought the high negative perceptions of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump would drive down the turnout. I guess I was wrong about that, too.

My wife and I have completed our civic duty. We’re glad we did it.

Pardon the cliché, but I’m proud to be an American.

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How will we respond to the result?

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Let’s play this out for a moment … or maybe two.

Hillary Rodham Clinton is poised to make history in about 24 hours. Her opponent, Donald J. Trump, is poised to lose the first — and likely only — political campaign he’s ever run.

How will the rest of us react?

Clinton voters will be joyful. Trump voters will be, um, angry? Filled with rage? Suspicious?

If we are to believe the last-minute polling, Clinton’s lead is holding firm at around 4 or 5 percent nationally.

The national anger well might hinge on the speech that Trump will be forced to give sometime Tuesday night. The networks will call the election for Clinton. Trump will embrace his wife and kids. He’ll take them by the hand and walk onto a stage at Trump Tower and make some kind of statement.

Tradition holds that the loser’s speech precedes the winner’s victory proclamation.

Will the loser do the right thing? Will he accept the result? Will he do something finally — finally! — that hues to longstanding political tradition?

If he does what he should do, Trump can go a long way toward heading off the anger he has fomented with his own rhetoric along the way. Would a graceful exit quell all the anger? Don’t bet the farm on that one.

Yes, it’s been a long and difficult slog. It’s about to end.

It’s fair tonight to wonder: How would Clinton sound if the world spins off its axis tomorrow? How would she handle defeat? My gut tells me she would follow tradition, that she would honor the result.

The most important speech of this entire campaign is going to occur when the loser concedes.

A speech that strikes the right tone can do far more than any of the bluster we’ve been hearing since seemingly forever.

 

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Now … the wait begins

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I’m out.

You’ve heard from me countless times already about how much I detest Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. I’ve said much less about Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. I guess I’ve fallen into the trap that lures people to speak negatively more readily than they speak positively.

So, with less than two days to go before we decide this presidential election, I’m done commenting on the candidates.

I’m going to await the results along with the rest of a dispirited nation.

Those who know me best might recognize that I am generally an optimist. I tend to see the good in people and in institutions. This election campaign — which has gone on non-stop for a year and a half — has tested that optimistic outlook to the max.

I am unhappy with the choices we face. I’ll make my own choice on Tuesday. My wife and I plan to vote early on Election Day, hoping to get to the polling place before the most of the rest of our neighbors wake up.

For me, it’s never really been a close call. I had considered a third party choice. I’ve decided against that.

My vote is more valuable than for me to cast it as a protest. On that score, my idealism remains strong.

If only I felt better about the process we’ve witnessed for an interminable length of time or about the candidates who’ve been responsible for bringing this process about.

What’s more, if only I felt better about the media that have contributed to this miserable exercise.

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Get ready for election night

election-day

They say there’s a first time for everything … as in, well, everything.

I need not be too specific … if you get my drift.

My wife and I are going to do something for the first time — if my memory hasn’t failed me — on Tuesday.

We’re going to an election-night watch party.

Some friends of ours in Amarillo invited us to their home along with several dozen perhaps of their best friends to watch the returns roll in on this most consequential presidential election.

Our friends know of my utter, complete, well-documented disdain for the Republican Party’s presidential nominee. They figure I’m all in with the Democratic nominee.

I’m not really. Neither is my wife.

But here’s the thing. Americans are facing a dismal choice as they select the next president of the United States. One of these two people will take the oath of office next January.

Am I happy about the choices we have?

As I told friends my wife and I met for lunch Friday in Colorado Springs, Colo., if the choices had been, say, Vice President Joe Biden and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, that would have presented me with a much happier decision-making exercise. If Kasich had been the GOP nominee this fall instead of the clown the party nominated, then I likely would be casting my first-ever presidential vote for the Republican nominee.

Our friends say they want to surround themselves Tuesday night with friends who will want Hillary Clinton to be elected.

From my perspective, that might be overstating — in a fairly nuanced sort of way — my own preference.

Given the miserable nature of the GOP nominee, I would prefer Hillary to be elected.

With that in mind — and in my heart — we will go to our friends’ home in a couple of days and hope that Americans will make the right call in selecting the next head of state, commander in chief and leader of the greatest nation on Earth.

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No way in the world I’m voting early

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Some of my friends and family are boasting about having voted early for president of the United States.

Good for them.

It’s not for me.

You know my feelings about early voting. I hate doing it. I’ve done so before, but only because I was going to be “absent” on Election Day from my polling place.

This election has demonstrated in stark terms the risk one takes in voting early, especially if you’re a fan of that scoundrel aka the Republican presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump.

Had you lived in one of those state that already had allowed early voting, you might have cast your vote for Trump — and then learned about that hideous “Access Hollywood” recording of Trump boasting about how he treats women.

Then again, even that might have rolled off your snout — as have so many other things that Trump has said and done while campaigning for the presidency.

My wife and I will be available to vote on Nov. 8. I’ll wait as long as I can on that day.

 

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Time to give Trump a bit of a break

I’m not usually prone to cut any slack for the incompetent, unqualified and unfit Republican nominee for president of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

I’ll do so here, although I’m not going to give him a complete pass.

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He was blabbing at a rally this week and urged his supporters to be sure to vote “on Nov. 28.”

The media are having a blast. They’re laughing out loud that Trump would make such a mistake. The election occurs on the Eighth of November.

Is this a big deal? Is it h-u-u-u-g-e?

It’s no bigger of a mistake, I suppose, than Sen. Barack Obama declaring during his first run for the presidency in 2008 that the U. S. of A. comprised 57 states.

D’oh! Sen. Obama knew better than that. He must have been tired.

I’m guessing Trump has grown a bit weary, too, having to fend off all the criticism of his behavior, his insults, his statements about women … all those kinds of things.

So, he goofs on date of the election. B … F … D, man.

I’m quite certain there’ll be plenty more grist to toss at Trump over the next four weeks.

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It’s come to this: sexual conduct will decide this election?

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It’s down to the wire between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.

With all the issues that separate the parties’ presidential nominees — trade, climate change, jobs, war and peace, terrorism — we’re left now to decide this election on … sexual misconduct.

The allegations are pouring in now.

The New York Times has published more stories about women alleging that Trump groped them. Trump is vowing to sue the newspaper. The Washington Post released that hideous video recording of Trump talking to “Access Hollywood” about his attempts to seduce a married woman and what he can get away with because of his “star” status.

Trump is now threatening to stay away next week from the final debate with Clinton because, he says, the debate format is “rigged.”

The GOP nominee’s poll numbers are plummeting. Meanwhile, Clinton’s team is airing feel-good TV ads extolling her work with children and women’s issues.

Trump’s own words — heard on the video recording — have caused many of his congressional supporters to revoke their endorsements, resulting in a virtual declaration of war against the Republican Party by its own presidential nominee!

Who in this world ever would have thought that could happen? Even in this utterly nonsensical election year?

I don’t know about you, but I am looking forward to watching this circus act come to an end on the Eighth of November.

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When in doubt, go with your gut

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A young friend of mine is going to vote this year for the first time in her life.

She is 23 years of age. She is torn over this election. Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump? After visiting with her for a few minutes Tuesday, I concluded she is likely to vote for Trump.

But she said something I want to share here.

My friend said she is reluctant to vote for anyone without knowing all there is to know about the candidates, their views on public policy, their philosophy or their world view.

“I just don’t know what to do,” she said.

Her biggest concern about Clinton? Benghazi. My friend believes Clinton was responsible for the deaths that occurred there during that fire fight on Sept. 11, 2012. We tussled a bit over what Hillary knew in the moment, what she should have known and what she could have done to prevent it.

I told her later I’ve been voting for president since 1972. I cast my first vote that year with great pride and anticipation. That vote — the first one — still means more to me than all the other ballots I’ve cast.

“I voted for the guy who lost … big time,” I told her, “but it meant a great deal to me.”

When in doubt, I ended up telling my friend, “go with your gut.”

It doesn’t really matter that voters get their arms around every detail of every issue. All that matters, in my view, is that they feel comfortable in their own gut and heart with the choice they make.

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Happy Labor Day weekend, y’all; now, get ready to rumble!

clinton and trump

This Labor Day weekend is going to be a special event for my wife and me.

Our wedding anniversary arrives on Sunday. It’s No. 45 for us. We’re having the time of our lives.

The holiday occurs on Monday.

It’s the unofficial “End of Summer.” Children are back in school. Life returns to some semblance of normal for millions of us.

And then …

We get to watch two individuals battle for the presidency of the United States of America. It won’t be pretty.

Let me revise that statement: This presidential campaign is going to be butt-ugly!

I’ve been watching this campaign intently for longer than I care to admit. I shall admit right along with many others that Donald J. Trump’s nomination as the Republican Party’s candidate for president is arguably the most astonishing political event I’ve ever witnessed in my 66 years on the Good Earth.

I did not think it would happen. It did.

As for the Democratic nominee, Hillary Rodham Clinton, I once considered her to be destined to win the presidency in a way not seen since, oh, Dwight Eisenhower was destined to win in 1952.

That hasn’t happened, either. She’s still the favorite. She might become the prohibitive favorite by the time Election Day rolls around.

The two major-party candidates, though, are going to slug it out.

Some pundits are comparing the Clinton’s current strategy to Muhammad Ali’s tactic of leaning on the ropes and letting heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman punch himself out. By the eighth round of their fight in Zaire, Foreman was spent and Ali flattened him for a knockout.

The campaign will get uglier than it is at the moment — if that’s at all possible. They’re calling each other racists and bigots. Trump says Clinton lacks the “stamina” to do the job; Clinton says Trump’s temperament and lack of judgment make him “unfit” to run the greatest nation on Earth.

There’s plenty more of that in store for us.

Will the candidates tell us what they intend to do for us? Will they lay out some detail to explain how they’re going to work with Congress to govern effectively?

I expect neither of those things to happen.

Therefore, I intend to enjoy the dickens out of this Labor Day weekend.

The home stretch of this presidential election will be anything but a joy ride.

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Counting down the days …

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A strange habit has grabbed hold of me.

I am finding myself counting down the days to Election Day. All that’s left is for me to put a short-timer’s calendar on the cabinet next to the desk in my home office.

We’ve got 86 days to go.

The last time I watched the calendar with such intensity, I believe, was when I was in the U.S. Army. The first calendar went up when I arrived in Vietnam in March 1969. Then I got home and I put another one up in Fort Lewis, Wash.

I haven’t been so anxious for the end of something as I was then.

This time, I am awaiting the end of this presidential election.

I am particularly tired of listening to Republican nominee Donald J. Trump say things that have nothing to do with public policy. His latest riff now is that the “only way I’ll lose” the election is if it’s “rigged.”

The culprit? Why, it’s “Crooked Hillary” Rodham Clinton, of course!

As for Clinton, I am weary of listening her try to avoid explaining why so many voters dislike her, why they distrust her.

My dear late mother used to warn me about “wishing your life away.” I would tell her, “Gee, Mom, I can’t wait for the weekend. I wish it would hurry up and get here.” That’s when she would issue the wise admonition.

Well, Mom? I’m at it again.

I cannot wait for this campaign to end.

Moreover, I just might put up that short-timer’s calendar.