Here in Virginia, many of my Trump Deranged, “the only GOOD party right or wrong” friends and neighbors had cast their votes for Democrats Abigail Spanberger (for Governor) and Jay Jones (for AG) long before the former had revealed herself as a cowardly, principle-free weasel and the latter had demonstrated that deep down he is a hateful ideologue with violent tendencies. Oh, most of them, perhaps all of them, would have probably voted for these two awful Democrats anyway, which is my point. Early voters have no standards. They just have teams, and they are blind cheerleaders for those teams. That means that their votes are not civically responsible or respectable.
In Maine, as you may well have read, a babbling fool who is a Maine Democratic U.S. Senate aspirant in the upcoming primary was outed this month as posting a wide range of Reddit comments between 2013 and 2021 endorsing political violence, shrugging off rape, using homophobic slurs and denigrating police officers and rural Americans. But early voting started on October 6, before that information was available to the public, so he’s hoping he is carried to victory on a wave of uninformed votes.
If I had voted as early as I could have in 2016, I would have cast my vote for Hillary Clinton and had to wear a bag over my head for the rest of my life. Fortunately, I had already concluded that early voting was the mark of either a fool or a bad citizen, and sure enough, I learned that the Democrats had rigged their nomination for Hillary with her consent and participation, and that she was even more of menace than I had thought she was. You see, for me the campaign period had worked the way it was supposed to work: it took almost the entire period for a responsible, attentive citizen (like me) to conclude that neither major party candidate deserved my vote.
The same people who devised the plague of early voting also are responsible for its twin election pathogen, mail-in voting. They think democracy benefits from the quantity of voters rather than their quality. Our nation’s Founders reasoned otherwise, and as in most matters, they were wiser than today’s social architects.
Especially with the difficulty of getting straight facts from the news media and the amazing number of metaphorical skeletons in our slimy ruling class’s closets, we need every second we can get to understand who and what we’re voting for, especially since the endorsements of our already-elected moral exemplars are cynical and worthless. Bernie Sanders is standing by the Maine Nazi. Spanberger is standing by Jones, who talked eagerly about having small children killed to teach Republicans the error of their ways. In New York, the House Minority Leader endorsed the likely new mayor of the Big Apple, despite the slick huckster’s open anti-Semitism, his love of Karl Marx, and the fact that he doesn’t, you know, know what the hell he’s talking about.
At a time when we need to know more about our elected officials’ background, character and true beliefs than ever, early voting encourages civic laziness, lack of seriousness, and ignorance. An early vote means, I conclude, “Don’t confuse me with facts, my mind’s made up” or, perhaps even more frequently, “I just want to get this chore over with as easily as possible, but I really don’t give a damn.”
Ethics Alarms 
I do not believe all early voters are unethical voters. There are some very good reasons to vote early. For example, I have a medical procedure scheduled on voting day. I cannot vote on that day, as I will be in the hospital at around 5 AM and will have to stay overnight, at least. If I want to deal with local issues this year, I have to vote early.
People who have to travel for work do not have a choice either. Quite often in the energy industry, you go where you have to, when you have to, for the length of time you have to, on very little notice. If you have notice, you get to vote early or by mail. This early voting isn’t unethical, so much as necessary.
There are other jobs where the fact that the government says you must be given time off to vote is a nice statement, but not practical, so you don’t get to vote because you cannot leave the work for the hour it takes to go vote. Plenty of energy industry jobs are like this, where you work from 7 to 7 (more likely 6-8) and an hour break is a laugh, where you are risking people’s lives for any break. You hope you can snarf lunch in a five minute slow down. Again, early voting is the only responsible method of voting, because during these times, you have no ability to vote on voting day.
There are plenty of unethical factors in early voting, but to decry that early voting is unethical ignores that there are good and indeed necessary reasons for early voting.
True, but exceptions to the rule. Overall, the effect is to ensure less informed voting and a less competent electorate producing less trustworthy leaders. Not a responsible trade-off.
Sarah, I think that in many ways you are making the case for Absentee Ballots rather than Early Voting. In every exceptional case you cite, the issue is not that you must be able to cast your vote long before Election Day, but rather that you simply cannot cast your vote on Election Day or, more specifically, at the normal polling place on Election Day.
Every example you give would be satisfied by being able to mail in an official absentee ballot on Election Day from a location other than the polling place or, failing that, a day or two before at most. Those absentee ballots, sent in a day or two at most for very necessary practical reasons would not at all fall afoul of Jack’s commentary about Early Voting.
Now if you have some hypothetical you can offer which requires a voter to have to be able to send in the ballot WEEKS in advance for any other reason but convenience, I’m listening.
–Dwayne
I must admit I too mix up early voting with absentee ballots. and at the very least that distinction should be made between the two. Having absentee ballots eliminates the need for early voting.
You are correct, I guess I don’t know the difference.
My dad used early voting in 2023 because he had planned for a vacation in 2020 that got postponed until post-Covid, that had him away for over a month and over the voting day. But while I can see that as a reason to vote early, I can also argue that as a case of priorities.
one man, one vote, one day! That’s my motto!
Me too.
I was under the impression that a motto is a soundbite that a person lives by. Since your personal life presumably doesn’t involve many decisions about voting rules, I would probably use the word “slogan” instead.
One man, one motto, one comment!
That’s my feedback
One people, one nation, one leader!
It sounds better in the original German.
Getting back on track… early voting is indeed a risk. You never know what awfulness your preferred candidate will commit between the time you vote and the time the polls close.
That’s true for all voting of course, but the larger the time gap, the greater the risk.
Can anyone give me a reasonable excuse for not having polling day on a weekend, or at least, making it a public holiday?
I don’t think a Federal holiday is a bad idea but for the fact that only government workers, some office workers and unionized factory workers will get the day off…just like now.
The vast majority of blue collar and service workers will still have to show up for the job. Of course, those folks generally aren’t working the entire time the polls are open so they should have the time to get it done.
I don’t know that it will increase voting anyway among those who don’t already do so. After all, so many of our federal holidays have become just extra days off.
Saturday voting was dismissed out of respect for Jewish citizens observing the Sabbath. Sunday, the same but for Christians.
Tuesday was chosen as a largely neutral day. Absentee ballots were put in place to cover any other contingency.
My ballot consists of two propositions. I don’t think it’s unethical to vote early and avoid persuading ads from people who don’t even live in the state. What’s unethical is people who vote party lines and the parties themselves. Perhaps some people will regret their early vote, but if the political parties vetted their candidates better we’d all be better off.
Given the current state of the Democratic party, what option is there other than to vote for the Republican? Not voting is a vote for the Democrats.
False equivalency. Without my vote, A has X votes and B has Y. Voting for A yields either X + 1 to Y. Not voting leaves it unchanged. It is not the same.
Further, by voting, you are accepting the legitimacy of the process. Non-voters have more right to complain than voters do.
If there is a serious candidate that isn’t ridiculous I tend to vote 3rd party. Here we’ve had many serious amendments and other issues to vote on which are longer lasting and more consequential than what person sits on the federal government offices.