Vote Early

(But not often. That's fraud.)

Photo by Cyrus Crossan on Unsplash

Last Tuesday, I took my ballot to the post office and dropped it in the outgoing mail slot.

I’m waiting for confirmation from the Chester County Board of Elections that the ballot was received. Once that happens, the 2024 election will be over for me.

It was easy to do, but I didn’t come to it easily.

Voting in October never felt natural. All things being equal, I would prefer to vote on November 5 because there is so much I like about in-person voting.

I like the social element of voting on Election Day—mingling with neighbors at the township building and talking to party representatives or candidates for local office if they happen to be at the polling place.

I like the feeling of standing in the booth and filling in those little ovals, an act both simple and profound being replicated at that very moment by tens of millions of people across the country.

I like how the act of voting helps me appreciate the magic of self-governance embodied by a free election in a democracy.

I like getting an “I voted” sticker and putting it on my jacket.

I always looked forward to it.

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But all things are not equal. Especially this year.

This year we are voting to determine if this is the last time we will be able to vote. We are voting on whether self-governance will continue. If we collectively get it wrong, there is no guarantee we will be able to correct the outcome in four years. Of course you’d like to win every election, but this time there really is no alternative.

That’s why I voted early. As much as I enjoy voting on Election Day, the Harris campaign derives tangible benefits from early voters. Voting early actually makes it more likely that Harris will win.

That’s because when you vote early your name is taken off the list of potential voters, which frees the campaign to direct their attention to other less likely voters. Campaigns have limited resources, so the more money and effort they can expend on people who are less likely to vote, the greater the likelihood they can bring these lower propensity voters to the polls. In a close election, it can mean the difference between winning and losing.

There’s a benefit for you as well, in that all those annoying texts and phone calls reminding you to vote early will stop. Once they do, you’ll know the campaign has moved on to other names on their list.

Voting early is also a great hedge against the possibility that you won’t be able to vote on Election Day. Even the best developed plans can be undone by bad weather, a personal emergency, or incredibly long lines at your polling place.

When you vote early you bank your vote. You don’t have to worry about not being able to make it to the polls in November, and the candidates you support already have your vote safely on the books.

In my case, I felt it was doubly important to vote early because I live in Pennsylvania. If you live in a swing state like me, one of the best ways to show your support for Kamala Harris is to vote now or as soon as early voting begins.

If you have concerns about the postal service, many states have drop boxes you can use or permit early in-person voting. It all depends on where you live. In my case, in-person drop-off doesn’t start until this week, so I decided to put my ballot in the mail—but I took the extra step of delivering it directly to the post office.

It’s easy to find out if and how you can vote early by going to vote.org. Just click on this link and it will take you to a page where you’ll find everything you need to vote (literally—this link will take you to a page that says “Everything You Need to Vote”). You can check your registration, register if you need to, register to vote by mail, check out a sample ballot, even set up reminders that will help you establish a voting plan if you need it.

Even though I voted early, I can still stop by my polling place on November 5 and talk to the party representatives and candidates at the table in front of the township building. I can even join them and hand out sample ballots to my neighbors who did’t vote early, and imagine a day when losing an election will once again only be an unpleasantry that can be corrected at some future date.

I miss those days even more than I miss voting in person. If we get it right this time, we will be on the path to bringing them back.