Posted on 10/24/2012 5:08:27 AM PDT by rhema
It has never occurred to me to vote early by absentee ballot, which might be nothing more than an indication of either a stable life or a dull one. I know where I will be on Nov. 6. I don't anticipate a hard-starting car or an autumn cold or even an overflowing toilet -- three reasons Michelle Obama gave in Wisconsin a few days ago when she urged an audience to vote early.
She might as well have said, "Hurry up and vote for my man before you see the third debate,'' although I am not sure the third debate would have changed anyone's already-made-up mind. Neither fellow landed a particularly striking blow Monday night, except that after three debates I am left with my conclusion.
Barack Obama is very passionate -- about being president.
Mitt Romney is very passionate about fixing the country.
Most principally, Romney wants to fix high unemployment and the debt growing out of control. He believes that if people get back to work and a budget is adhered to with discipline, all things will then flow outward, military superiority, an international presence of authority, the defining and eliminating of enemies.
In fact, on those stage settings where it is hard to read a candidate's passion, Romney's came through only when he said, "I can fix this ... I can balance this budget ... I know how to do it.''
Obama's passion came though only when he said, "We need to hire more teachers.''
Well, that's what I am left with, the predisposition that Romney is itching
to put on a green eyeshade, have a jar of sharpened pencils ready and the balance sheets brought to his desk. Let's go here. Let's get back to basics and you watch, if we get back to basics, we will be all right. The rub, of course, is that getting back to basics is hard work. Getting back to the basics will mean that not everybody can have what they want from the government, that in order to save the government and whip it into a reasonable shape, we will have to pare it down and put it on a diet.
We have become a pampered mess of people. We don't want risk or burden. We want what is easy and we want it now. Early voting? Why not? It might be raining on Election Day, or as Michelle Obama pointed out, your plumbing might be on the fritz.
I understand the legitimate reasons for people who vote absentee, but I am unnerved by the hard sell to replace convention and ritual with the risk-free idea of getting your vote out of the way. It is not something to be gotten out of the way. It is something to relish. Not much is asked of us. Why, you might argue that so little is asked of us that we are perishing under the weight of our own luxury. The debt is $16 trillion. Even though that is unfathomable and might as well be treated as play money, doesn't something bad happen when your debtors have had enough and want to cash in their chips?
There is a link between early voting and the Obama presidency. They are both bolstered by the conviction that you just leave everything to us and we'll take care of it for you.
I'd prefer to be asked something, to participate. That's not paying more taxes, by the way. The government could confiscate the entire holdings of Bill Gates and it wouldn't bring in enough money to run the government for longer than 15 days.
No, the something we have to get back to is the basics. Jobs. A government that gets out of the way. We need to be a country of people who work. When we are a country of people who work, we are a country that has military superiority, has a presence of authority in international relations and we know and defeat our enemies. When we are a country of people who work, success will be measured by how many people do not need food stamps.
I'll vote Nov. 6, even if it's raining. It's the least I can do.
I’m an election day voter. Its kind of a social event around here with neighbors wandering across the street to the post office after voting to catch up on the local news and gossip.
Same here.
When my Mom was still alive and in a nursing home she still insisted on voting ONLY on election day.
"I vote and open presents in the mornings of their respective days. And not a moment sooner."
I never understood this idea of “early voting.” Absentee voting is understood as a necessity for people who might be traveling or fighting in our armed forces, but the idea of opening the polls early for people indicates how lazy we are as a society.
Election day has been roughly the same time for at least as long as I’ve been alive (32 years), and when I was a little boy, I would go with my mom to the polls to watch her do her civic duty. I just couldn’t wait to be 18.
Going to the polls on election day is a right of every American that should be treasured. It’s an entire day, oftentimes 12 hours, where you should find an hour of your time to cast your ballot. It’s not like church at an hour a week, it’s an hour every 2 years to ensure that the idea of our founding remains intact and that we don’t descend into the tyrannical hegemony that’s consumed so many other “great” nations such as Russia or France or even England.
Early voting is dumb and opens up the process to fraud. Absentee voting, in my opinion, should require that the requester provide a reason for needing the ballot. It should be required that voting occur on one specific day and not allowed any other time or at any other location outside of a polling place.
I know an aging drug addict/social leech who is 60+ yeas old and has voted for the first time because he never realized how easy it is. He voted straight ticket democrat on an absentee ballot because he didn’t even have to put down the joint or leave his house to do it.
Voting should be harder so people like that won’t vote.
While I was driving over the road I welcomed the chance to vote early or send in my vote knowing I would not be in my state at the correct time to vote.
I need to get back in the habit of listening to Joe’s radio show...
I never understood this idea of “early voting.”
for me early voting allowed me to vote without the long waiting or standing in lines giving me more time to make sure everything I voted for was correct before sumiting my ballet. Not being lazy as I still have to drive to my polling place spending the same time voting and living in florida I dont relish standing in long lines in the hot parking lots in the florida sun.
Election day voter, usually FIRST at my polling place at 4am with a chair, umbrella and thermos. Others get there, disappointed they aren’t first, and we share coffee. Even when we disagree, it’s a great experience that everybody should be part of.
Going to the secretary/treasurer’s office and dropping off a form? No way.
Great premise! We must remember how a legal vote gets watered down by fraudulent voting ie. illegals voting, no id required, dead votes, mentally incompetent voters being escorted to the polls, people voting mulitple times etc.
One cold rainy Tuesday night when I was a child, my father, a WWII veteran, got home from work and immediately did a face palm. He muttered that he had to go back out and vote. I asked why bother, it’s cold and miserable out there .
He fixed me with a look I knew meant he was serious and said;
“Because too many men better than me died horrible deaths in awful places so I could vote”
I’ve never missed an election.
TODAY’S BLOCKBUSTER:
The Duluth News Tribune endorses Romney !
(I’d say the jig is up.)
I live in Florida as well and gladly stand in long lines to vote. People around the world would relish the ability to wait in line to vote in free and fair elections. The fact that we’re allowing early voting, again, indicates how uninspired we are by the political process and how lazy we’ve become as a society.
I don’t know about your SoE, but ours sends us a sample ballot 2 weeks prior to the elections. I pore over mine, mark my choices, and take it with me to the polls when I vote. I go into the ballot box knowing for whom and what I’m going to vote and once I’ve been handed my ballot, I’m in and out of the box in less than 5 minutes.
“I need to get back in the habit of listening to Joe’s radio show...”
Me too. Garage Logic AM 1500 KSTP
I am another “Election Day” voter - I even once worked in my local elections office and they kept teasing me about not voting early while I was there!! I enjoy wearing something red, white, and blue -putting on my flag pin - and standing in line (if necessary). I think while I’m standing there of all of the others who wish they could live here and be free to vote!!! It is , indeed, a great privilege!!
Joe used to be on at 2pm, right after Rush.
Now I think he shares a show on sports till 3 pm, then gets back to being just cranky old Joe...
Duluth, as in Duluth, MINNESOTA???? Wow.
Joe Soucheray is one of my favorite writers and radio personalities. As usual spot on.
Please no attacks. I’m voting and nothing would stop me from doing so.
More and more I keep thinking that by voting, we consent to all that our government has done in our name. It is our stamp of approval. We vote for them. I strongly oppose 95% of what our government has done with my “consent”.
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