{"id":44283,"date":"2020-09-07T01:26:58","date_gmt":"2020-09-07T01:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=44283"},"modified":"2020-09-07T01:26:58","modified_gmt":"2020-09-07T01:26:58","slug":"changing-election-views","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=44283","title":{"rendered":"Changing election views"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>
(Photo by Scott Olson\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This blasted COVID-19 pandemic is forcing yours truly into a significant change in attitude about how to conduct elections.<\/p>\n

I mean, I used to stand solidly behind the notion of voting exclusively on Election Day. I still like the idea. I would prefer to vote that way.<\/p>\n

Then the pandemic struck. It has filled me with serious concern about getting sick while waiting to cast my ballot. So … I became a fan of voting by mail. It isn’t inherently corrupt, as Donald Trump alleges — with no basis for the allegation of “rampant voter fraud.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Given that I live in Texas, a state that isn’t likely to welcome universal mail-in voting, I am now going to endorse the notion of voting early. My wife and I plan to do so on the first day we can vote in Texas.<\/p>\n

Why the change of heart? I keep hearing from election experts that early voting is the best way to ensure that our ballot gets counted.<\/p>\n

Therein lies the fundamental reason for any concern about Election 2020. It is imperative that our votes count. It is critical to everyone that their voices are heard.<\/p>\n

All this yammering about potential U.S. Postal Service screw-ups and how our ballots might not arrive in time, or that they might get tossed for this and\/or that reason makes me a bit nervous. I do have faith in our local election officials’ ability to conduct a free, fair and accurate election.<\/p>\n

However, just to be sure …<\/p>\n

We’re going to vote early. We have some time yet in Texas to cast our ballots.<\/p>\n

Were it not for this pandemic, I would be waiting all the way to Election Day. This is a big part of the “new normal” that neither my wife and I anticipated when the pandemic swept across the United States.<\/p>\n

We’re ready for it.<\/p>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This blasted COVID-19 pandemic is forcing yours truly into a significant change in attitude about how to conduct elections. I mean, I used to stand solidly behind the notion of voting exclusively on Election Day. I still like the idea. I would prefer to vote that way. Then the pandemic struck. It has filled me … Continue reading Changing election views<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1496,2856,9261,5131],"class_list":["post-44283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-early-voting","tag-mail-in-voting","tag-pandemic","tag-voter-fraud"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44283"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44284,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44283\/revisions\/44284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}