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 am leaving the country for Australia on 01 November. Thanksfully, Georgia has early absentee balloting. There is nothing that will keep me from voting to throw Zero out.
Yeah.
I found it nearly incredible.
I trust the paper ballots, and I request a receipt. Our machines here can print out a paper receipt with coded voting choices if you ask the proctor to do it for you. With all the voting shenanigans going on, I want my vote to count.
Amen!
I have voted absentee a few times in my life, when I simply would be unavailable to vote in-person on the designated Tuesday. First go-around was military, and this year because of business commitments (I’m teaching a class on that day, half the country away).
Once, I voted first thing in the morning, then drove 8.5 hours cross country for a business trip. (That was Gore’s last stand in 2000)
Absentee and early voting should be only for those who legitimately cannot be available on Election Day. It should be aimed at the productive in society, whose very productiveness is often the reason for their absence on the designated Tuesday.
Just my $.02.
I’d like to see early voting in all its forms done away with for everyone but the military. Election day should be a national holiday.
Early voting is dumb and opens up the process to fraud.
&&&
Exactly! Which is why the Rats want it so badly.
Someday one of the following two things will happen:
-a Republican candidate will have a major scandal broken 2 or 3 weeks before the election, but will win anyway on the strength of early votes cast before it hit the fan
OR
-a Democrat will die a couple of weeks before Election Day with no time to replace him on the ballot.
Then, all of a sudden, the Democrats will have a problem with the concept of Early Voting.
That's exactly why all the crap you always see swirling around as elections get closer that the president (democrat or republican) will manufacture a way to skip the election. Fact is, if they ever do find an excuse to not have the election, no matter how good the reason seems to be, all bets are off, and we will see blood in the streets. It's not like our vote has any real meaning, because the same power structure backs both sides, but they require our participation to keep the fig leaf in place that we have actually have a voice in the government.
Maybe Joe is too narrow minded to understand excitment to vote means voting as soon as possible and not a statement of voting being a chore. Idiot.
I vote absentee because I’m usually a poll challenger on election day.
What stupidity. Vote eary in person if you can. The Dems have been cleaning our clocks with this strategy for years. You lock in the base and don't depend on just one day for them to show up. Personal emergencies, illness, the weather, unexpected business trips, etc. cause us to lose votes. I sometimes think that articles like this are disinformation put out by the other side.
I have already voted. I am also a poll observer. The Dems are flooding the early voting, in-person polls here in NoVA, but the GOP has mounted a substantial effort to get out our vote and it appears to be working.
Romney and his campaign organization have developed a very sophisticated GOTV operation, which includes early voting--something the Dems have perfected for several elections. It is time we wake up.
I always try to vote early.
Once early voting starts, my enthusiasm drives me to vote.
I never knew people were against the idea.
Do you know what time Sooch is on?
Last time I went checking for him (I live far away and have to listen online) the lefty station ownership had jiggered his show all over the place, changed the format, etc. etc.
Thanks in advance.
I am an early voter. I have already voted. Now I have lots of time to be a poll worker now. Election day I am signed up to work in a heavy Dem area, that is of concern to the local GOP.
The social stuff is fun, and there is something special about election day, but I gave all that up to try to help.
That is the other side of early voting.
I like early voting. It just means shorter lines and improved convenience in timing — there’s nothing ideological about it.
I vote in the mornings before going to work then volunteer at the polls in the afternoon. My employer allows me to leave a little early to get to the polls before the rush and get setup. I’ve done it for the last 3 elections.
Vote early, vote Republican.
By voting early you do a big favor to the folks doing the GOTV. They know you voted, so you dont get those annoying calls reminding you to vote!
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