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There are some reports of people waiting three hours to vote on the first day of Early Voting 🗳

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There are some reports of people waiting three hours to vote on the first day of Early Voting 🗳

It’s absolutely stupid to wait that long, unnecessary Covid-19 risk with eight more days of early voting left plus Election Day. Or better yet, just do an absentee ballot, making sure to sign the outer envelope and date it, making sure to have it postmarked when dropped off at the post office. Hardly rocket science to have a valid absentee ballot.

Honestly, if the lines don’t tamper down this week I’ll just go to the post office and pay the 55 cents and make sure the clerk postmarks my ballot. No way in hell am I waiting in a line like that, especially when there is not a single competive election locally where the winner is all but certain to have more than 60 percent of the vote.

Hopefully these Early Voting spectacles won’t be a super spreader event for COVID-19. There is a very good chance that at least some of those people in the line have Coronavirus if statistics are to believed. The risk is so high with so many people in closer corners, touching the same pens and tablet computers when they sign in. I understand that democracy is important but it shouldn’t be conducted in a way that risks public health when there are so many safer ways to vote.

I plan to drop my absentee ballot off at the polling place during early voting

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I plan to drop my absentee ballot off at the polling place during early voting 🗳

The governor’s executive order allows for that and its the easiest way for me to do it – I can just fill it out from the privacy of home and be in and out. No wait or delay.

There is no reason for me not to vote by absentee. None of this year’s elections are competitive this year, so ballot challenges are very unlikely. But more than that, the basic law around absentee voting is straight forward and if you follow the rules your ballot will be counted. And even if you don’t follow the rules, chances are still good your ballot still will be counted.

And truth be told, any individual ballot doesn’t matter much. Only collective opinions decides elections not individual voters. It’s good to register your opinions – that’s important in a democracy but your opinions are only one of many so don’t get wrapped up around them. Your own vote isn’t going to change the world. Certainly if voting wasn’t so easy with the early voting site a less than a quarter mile from home, I’d probably think twice – although I’d probably still vote because it’s important.