Election Day as a Deadline vs. a Holiday
by Ron Daly
November 6 is Election Day. We’re positive that all of our readers are voting – they’re all good citizens who are wise, engaged and informed – let’s not focus on that.
Let’s look at the idea of Election Day itself. More and more, American citizens are voting early. According to the United States Elections Project, nearly 30 million americans have voted already. President Obama became the first president to vote early on October 25 of this year. Lines for early voting this weekend were hours long across the nation, especially in “battleground states” Ohio and Florida.
I’m not going to dig down into politics, but I will say this: early voting is a good thing. Really, it is.
We raise our children in our homes and in our schools to believe that the power to vote is an important power. Ideally, everyone who can vote will – but we know that doesn’t always happen. I’ve more than once heard the excuse that “the line was too long at my polling place”. What a crock! With early voting, you get plenty of time to vote and it’s just as good as voting on the day. They’ll even give you the sticker and you can wear it a full day (or even week) ahead of time.
It comes back to the idea of removing barriers to entry. Leaving people with fewer and fewer excuses means that if they miss out on the opportunity to vote, it’s more likely to be their problem and not the system’s problem.