Tag Archives: early voting

local news, political news

Early vote shows early enthusiasm

Well, I did what many other Americans have dedicated themselves to doing and I voted early. Indeed, I \was among the first people lined up at the Princeton Municipal Center waiting anxiously to cast my ballot for a plethora of races on our lengthy ballot.

I haven’t normally done sort of thing, given my former distaste for voting early. I preferred to wait until Election Day to cast my ballot. Something in my inner self prompted me to vote early this year … so, I did.

I was heartened by the number of North Texans who were waiting. Everyone was quite glad to be there, awaiting their turn to perform this wonderful act of citizenship.

I won’t get into what partisan impact the early-voter turnout will have on our voting pattern. Analysts say Democrats prefer to vote early; Republicans prefer to wait until Election Day. I do not know how they can make that calculation. I had no feel for how my fellow early voters stand on the presidential race, which is as it should be.

Hey, it’s done. I am now going to block any further electronic correspondence I have been getting from those wanting me to spend money on their candidates’ campaign.

local news, political news

‘Election day’ arrives

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Notice the quotation marks around the words “Election day,” and also notice I didn’t capitalize “day.”

It’s because the actual election day will be15 days from now. However, I am going to march into the belly of the beast sometime Monday to cast my ballots for a slew of candidates and issues along my lengthy ballot in Princeton, Texas.

I still cannot define with clarity why I have decided to break with the tradition of waiting until Election Day to cast my ballot. I won’t try.

I am just going to drive to the polling place and wait to cast my ballot. I am going to vote enthusiastically for a number of races, such as for president and the US Senate. I won’t belabor the points on why. You know why.

It’s a full ballot and none of the candidates with whom I am most familiar present any real threat of a candidate making a deal-breaking mistake between now and the day they count all the ballots. I will split my ballot among Democrats and Republicans.

I do enjoy the pageantry, such as it is, about Election day or Day. Indeed, I would support shutting down everything for Election Day, which this year falls on Nov. 5. Why not make casting our ballots for whom we want to lead us a national holiday?

That’s another story for another day.

A big day awaits tomorrow as Texas goes to the polls.

Uncategorized

Sucking it up with an early vote

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Command decision time at blogging HQ, which happens to be my North Texas man cave.

I have decided to cast my vote early in this year’s election, Early voting begins in Texas on Monday and it is possible I’ll be one of the first voters in line at my Princeton polling place.

As many of you know, I have preferred to wait until Election Day to cast my ballot. Not this year. I am going to get my preferences logged into the secure system early. I am going to get my civic duty out of the way.

Then I’ll just wait for the end of the campaign to exhaust itself until Nov. 5.

My concerns about candidates’ messing up between now and Election Day remain. I am just going to presume that the candidates of my choice will keep it clean until Election Day.

I also am announcing my plan to split my ticket. I am going to vote for some Republicans running in down-ballot contests. You know all about my preferences for the very top of the ballot. I won’t revisit those choices here or seek to explain them to you.

There is no point to trying to persuade readers of this blog about the unfitness of the Republican presidential nominee or try to explain how an incumbent US senator can hightail it to Cancun while hundreds of Texans were dying in the midst of the February 2021 deep freeze that smothered virtually the entire state.

Just know that I remain faithful to opposing straight-ticket voting. That principle remains intact.

Let it never be said that this old man is too hidebound to change the way he casts his ballot. I might not vote early in the next election, or the one after that.

This one? I hear the sound of my conscience telling me to do it.

political news

Whether to vote early

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I am in the midst of an intense internal struggle between what I normally do during election season and what I am tempted to do for this one.

Do I vote early or do I wait until Election Day?

Readers of this blog know what I have said previously about early voting vs. waiting until Election Day to cast my ballot.  I have sought to avoid the unwelcome surprise that can occur between the day I vote early and Election Day voting. My candidate might mess up mightily, you know?

There is nothing on Earth that Donald Trump can do to win my vote. I have declared him unfit for public since long before scored that fluky win in 2016. I do not anticipate Kamala Harris doing anything to make me regret voting for her.

What about down-ballot races? I detest the Cruz Missile, the US senator named Ted Cruz. I also deeply admire US Rep. Colin Allred, who is challenging Cruz.

Do I sound like I am talking myself into voting early? Possibly.

I am going to wait a while longer before I decide.  This election will be safe and corruption free. The question for me is whether I want to know whether I am part of the trend when the polls close on Nov. 5, or whether I am swimming against the tide.

local news

Going to vote early … for once!

Today I am going to do something I generally avoid like the proverbial plague.

Yep. I am going to vote early in advance of the May 6 election date. You see, I usually wait for Election Day to cast my ballot. My concern usually is to avoid being surprised by candidates for public office who mess up between the time I vote and the date we are scheduled to cast our ballots.

The Princeton, Texas, ballot features a bond issue request from the Princeton Independent School District. It’s a big one: $797 million to pay for construction of several new campuses over the next 10 years; my mind is made up on that matter. There also will be some seats to decide on the Collin College Board of Regents; I am going to take a chance and cast my votes for those seats with the hope that no one gets in trouble.

I am going to be out of town on May 6, which means I have to vote early. It’s the only reason I would do so. If I were King of the World, I would persuade the state to move Election Day to suit my schedule.

I can’t do that … obviously.

So I will do my civic duty as a proud American patriot and cast my vote early.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

The mayor agrees: early voting is a gamble!

I had a chat this weekend with Princeton (Texas) Mayor Brianna Chacon about the upcoming election and about whether either of us should vote early.

I learned that the mayor doesn’t like early voting any more than I do, which is to say that I hate doing it.

Early voting in these Texas municipal elections does not allow voters to avoid Election Day crowds. That’s because turnout at these elections usually is pitiful. Perhaps in single-digit percentages. So, that’s no reason to vote early.

What Chacon and I agreed on is the risk associated with voting early. The risk comes when you cast your ballot for a candidate many days prior to Election Day and then your candidate says or does something profoundly stupid.

Chacon agrees about the risk one takes when voting early. I got the impression that she intends to vote on Election Day. Indeed, she said something about waiting until about 15 minutes before polling ends and then showing up to cast her ballot.

I won’t wait that long. Still, since we intend to be available to vote on Nov. 2 — which is Election Day — I’ll just bide my time and wait it out … and hope my preferred candidates don’t mess up.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Democracy is stronger than COVID

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I want to declare victory on behalf of our democratic government.

No, it has nothing to do with who won the presidential election. It has everything to do with the number of American citizens who voted while the nation we love in the grip of a killer pandemic.

The Joe Biden-Donald Trump election has drawn nearly 154 million Americans to vote for president. The previous high occurred four years ago when the Donald Trump-Hillary Clinton contest attracted more than 136 million total ballots. Oh, and get a load of this: This year’s election tally is going to grow as more ballots are counted each day.

This is worth saluting because we often gripe about voters who become lazy, or disinterested, or disengaged from the political process. Not this year, man!

Politicians mostly of the Democratic persuasion called on voters to cast their ballots. Vote by mail if you and you are concerned about exposure to the COVID virus, they said. Vote early, they implored us, to ensure your votes are counted.

It appears that the public heard the calls to vote. They responded with a turnout that no doubt will make history.

political news, State news

Yell it out: We’re No. 1

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Early voting in Texas has shut down and here’s the good news: Texans responded like champs to Democrats’ call for early voting.

We responded so well that the early vote totals have surpassed the entire number of ballots we cast in the 2016 election; and that includes Election Day voting four years ago.

So, what does that mean? On the surface it could mean that more voters who lean in Joe Biden’s favor have turned out to cast their ballots early. My ballot is among the more than 9 million already cast. Does the former VP have a majority of those ballots in his column? Beats me. We’ll find out in, what, four days.

Still, it warms my soft spot to know that Texas has set the pace nationally in responding to this early-vote call. It was done out of concern that Donald Trump’s re-election machine is going to muck up the ballot-counting of mail-in votes.

Democrats responded by imploring us to vote early. My wife and I did, even though we would have preferred to wait to vote in-person on Election Day. The COVID crisis, though, persuaded us to vote early and not risk getting a mail-in ballot caught up in the snail-mail delivery system.

Now comes the mad rush by the candidates — Biden and Kamala Harris on one side, and Trump and Mike Pence on the other — as they criss-cross the country in search of votes.

I am now going to relax just a bit over the next couple of days. Then I will await the returns to start pouring in on Election Night. Oh, how I want this election to turn out the correct way.

State news

Texas in the presidential mix … who knew?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It’s so nice to see the nation talking positively about Texas, which — to be candid — isn’t usually the case in this modern world.

We usually find ourselves on the front pages when there’s a mass shooting at a church, shopping mall or a school; or when the state’s Republican Party hierarchy doesn’t something stupid.

These days, Texas is the talk of the nation. Why? Because we are setting the early-voting pace that other states are trying to match.

I saw a report tonight that said Texans have cast nearly 86 percent of all the ballots we cast in the 2016 election. We still have two days to go before the end of early voting; plus, we have Election Day balloting.

What does this mean? It could mean that Texas will be among the leaders in voter turnout when we count all the presidential election ballots rather than among the worst-performing states.

This is good news at any level I can imagine.

I said for years when I was writing opinion pieces for newspapers in Amarillo and Beaumont that one of the keys to good government must be vast voter participation. I used to caution residents of both communities about the danger of letting others make key political decisions for them; they might not share your views, I would say.

It looks for all the world that in Texas, as well as in many states, that voters are taking these get-out-the-vote pleas quite seriously.

It fills me with pride to hear the media talk about Texas’s pace-setting early vote totals in tones that suggest that other states should emulate what we are doing here.

local news, political news, State news

Will this surge spell end of Trump Era?

(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Harris County, Texas, has set two records in a row since the start of early voting on Tuesday.

Dallas County up Interstate 45 hasn’t done too badly, either.

Oh, and how about Travis County, where the state Capitol can be found? They’re turning out in huge numbers, too.

Same for Bexar County.

What does this mean for the 2020 presidential election. Some Democratic activists believe it bodes well for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and us Bidenistas who want the Democrats to oust Donald Trump and Mike Pence from the White House.

I am not going to count them chickens just yet.

However, I hasten to add that Democrats have been all over TV, radio and in print telling us all to “get out and vote.” If the first two days of early voting in Texas are an indication, the message has been heard. Democrats hope it means Biden and Harris are reaping the ballot-box reward.

Let me crystal clear: I do, too, want them to harvest the electoral fruit of this get-out-the-early-vote drive.

Harris, Dallas, Bexar and Travis counties all are Democratic strongholds. I have acquaintances in blood-red Randall and Potter counties who believe the Democratic ticket is catching fire up yonder in the Panhandle. I … am not so sure about that.

However, the record-setting early-vote turnout in those Democratic bastions gives me hope that just maybe, perhaps, possibly the state could turn from an R to a D on the strength of that monstrous balloting tide.

To be sure, the Trumpkins are turning out as well. They’re flying plenty of “Trump-Pence” flags in rural Texas. Donald Trump, though, isn’t going to pitch a huge early vote among his faithful. Indeed, he wants fewer of us do our patriotic duty. Go figure.