Last week, I mentioned that those who can should vote absentee, something that even SBE Secretary Nancy Rodrigues encourages. As the election looms in a little over a week, we are getting reports of early voting from across the country. Unfortunately, Virginia, a battleground state for the first time in a number of years, isn’t one of them. In Monday’s paper, The Virginian Pilot weighed in on the side of allowing early voting.
Could there be a better reason for allowing early voting in Virginia other than its potential to improve historically mediocre turnout rates?
How about this: More-flexible voting rules could reduce long lines and save the state money when turnout is really, really high – like what’s expected next week.
On the other hand, Washington Post writer Marc Fisher argued against early voting.
Voting is a proud expression of who we are and of our belief in our system and our future. It is an individual act but a communal experience. It is a statement we make about ourselves, to ourselves, but also to each other. It is how we say, “I am part of something larger, and my voice matters, and so does yours.” When we chip away at that communal experience, we diminish democracy.
So my question: do you support early voting? If so, why? If not, why not?
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Voting should be made easier. It shouldn’t be a hardship.
I remember working for Del. Brink for the 2007 General Assembly session. He had a number of bills trying to make absentee voting easier. Among those were pregant women and volunteer firefighters being able to vote absentee.
Those bills were, of course, defeated in subcommittee. I couldn’t believe it when he came back and told me. I thought that every elected had the best intentions at heart for all Virginians.
There are some people out there that don’t like having an open and fair process.
If voting is a communal experience, as Fisher suggests, then why don’t we do it on a day when the entire community can participate? Frankly, it looks like the day was picked to minimize the impact of the working poor on any election.
Also, how is multi-day voting in any way diminishing the communal experience of this election? It has been a fantastically involved and prolonged election; allowing greater participation and more direct involvement than any election I can remember (and I remember back through 1976).
We need to improve our democracy by eliminating the stranglehold the two parties have on the system, minimizing the impact of corporate money, maximizing the impact of individual citizen voters, opening up the debates to non-partisan participation, and using a Borda, Condorcet, or Instant-Runoff voting system so we can honestly choose the best option for each office rather than the lessor of two evils charade we have now.
Instant Runoff multi-day elections after open debates with verified voting is the way to go. The democracy we have may have been the best in the world, in all history, for a couple of hundred years; but it can still be improved.
Ding. I’d like to see Election Day converted to Election Week, or, barring that, Election Weekend. I’d probably be less inclined to support Early Voting if either of those were in place, but until then, I’ll go with supporting a formalizing of what most registrars in VA seem to have already created (early voting).
I go along with anything that makes voting easier and increases voter turnout. I am against allowing voting via the internet thus far (only due to fears of fraud from hackers) but anything short of that which makes it easier and more convenient has to be a good thing. Perhaps one day internet security might advance to even allow for this.
As for the communal experience? Hah. Go commune if you want to by standing out in the rain while waiting in long lines if you want to. Some of us have better things to do then “commune” when it is raining cats and dogs.
Haven’t you heard voter turn out lessens when it is raining?
Voter turnout in no way guarantees wise choices.
Most of the people who can’t be bothered with a little inconvenience on election day probably should be voting anyway.
I would submit that those people too lazy or apathetic to put up with a little inconvenience in the course of fulfilling one of the most basic responsibilities of citizenship don’t DESERVE to be allowed to vote.
People who are that lazy or apathetic probably have not made even the most minimal effort to educate themselves.
Anyone who has no freaking clue what the issues are, where the candidates stand on those issues, and does not have a solid, factual, reasoned basis for where THEY stand on the issues, would better serve the public interest by staying home on election day.
Anything we can do to encourage that is fine by me.
Heck…lets institute a mandatory 1 hour wait before casting a ballot even if no one’s in line ahead of them. That’ll weed out the lazy and apathetic.
SailorCurt,
Why should a voter be forced to risk pneumonia in order to cast their vote? Why should the single parent be forced to risk pneumonia for his/her kids in order to cast their preference? Should the vote of the single parent be less valuable then the young, healthy voter?
One man (woman) one vote. It should not become an obstacle course to exercise this right.
Besides, it has been alleged that “those in power” might increase the obstacles to voting (making the lines longer) in areas they project the turnout might go against them.
Let’s remove the excuses. One man/woman one vote. It was so easy for you to cast your ballot. If you didn’t bother to vote, stop complaining.
snolan:
If voting is a communal experience, as Fisher suggests, then why don’t we do it on a day when the entire community can participate? Frankly, it looks like the day was picked to minimize the impact of the working poor on any election.
IIRC, Tuesday was chosen to keep people from having to travel on the Sabbath to vote. Seems a bit antiquated now. I think that we’d be better off voting on Saturday and going midnight to midnight.
SailorCurt,
Were those who were stuck in the Mixing Bowl because of the ice storm on primary day lazy, or apathetic???
Forgot to mention the inequalities of different rules and different numbers of machines per voter in urban precincts vs rural ones.
Every election year I compare notes with a friend who was in the USAF with me in the mid-1980s; he lives in East Saint Louis, IL (urban, mostly black, not wealthy). They have had a shortage of machines and long (around the block multi-hour) lines in every presidential election since 1990. I have moved around a bit, but mostly been voting in suburban Virginia; and I’ve never had to wait more than 10 minutes to vote (I am white, living in white neighborhoods of mostly wealthy people).
Key difference: we have 6-10 machines in a tiny precinct with perhaps 1100 voters on the rolls. East Saint Louis has 3 machines in a precinct with 12000 voters on the rolls… is it any wonder they have longer lines?
I just voted yes on your early voting question. Seems to me that Virginia is always twenty five years behind the times. Our legislators are always pushing back against change. Most of them see themselves as landed gentry who think they know what is good for the little folk when it is really about maintaining their status quo of doing what is good for their own self interest.
I voted early (in-person absentee) this year, because I’ll be
handing out sample ballots all day (open of polls to close of
polls) at a nearby precinct.
I’m encouraging everyone I know to vote early or, if they can’t
vote early, to vote the first time they leave the house on Election
Day.
Democrats in Hampton Roads being given fliers telling them to vote on wrong day:
http://raisingkaine.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=92A05CAC4F6079D116C253A81D12F9BF?diaryId=16917
Thanks, Connie. I just threw up a post.
I’ve gotta admit…I was expecting a bit more vitriol in response. Your readers are admirably civil.
My comment was mostly tongue in cheek. I was smiling the whole time I was writing it, but that doesn’t transfer well through the keyboard.
I do believe that people should make the effort to educate themselves about the candidates and issues before voting, but I wouldn’t actually advocate any roadblocks to voting.
I actually have no problem with early voting and would support online voting AS LONG AS proper safeguards are put in place to prevent fraud.
It just saddens me that your average American (I’m not talking about the people here…people who care enough to read and comment on political blogs are not your “average Americans”) could tell you more about the latest contestants on American Idol or their favorite sports team…which has absolutely no actual impact on their lives…than they can about their representatives at ANY level of government…who actually DO impact their daily lives and in often dramatic ways.
Most people don’t even realize that our country is not a democracy…that the founding fathers reviled pure democracy.
That we actually don’t elect the President and don’t have a constitutional right to vote in Presidential elections.
And that the President simply doesn’t have the Constitutional authority to do the vast majority of the things that Presidential candidates promise us they’ll do.
But they vote…and their vote counts for just as much as someone who actually DOES know what they’re doing.
Maybe there should be a short quiz required before voting:
1. Name your Senators and Representative.
2. In what branch of the government does the Vice President serve?
3. What is the role of the President in the legislative process?
4. Define “penumbras” and explain their relationship to “emanations.”
Ok…number 2 is a trick question and number 4 may be a little too difficult…I’m not even sure Justice Douglas had a clear understanding of it.
But it’s a start.
(I’m being tongue in cheek again in case you can’t hear me chuckling).