It’s Election Day, and most of you have probably already voted. So have I. Just some random Election Day observations for your edification.
- Early voting is, on net, a good thing. It makes it easier and more convenient for legitimate voters without making it any easier to cheat. Texas allows 12 days of early voting, while Florida allows 8 days. That seems about right to me.
Some states have very long early voting periods, and that seems problematic. A lot can change over, say, the 40+ days of early voting in Minnesota, South Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Illinois.
Others, like Alabama, Alaska, Mississippi and New Hampshire, have no early voting. Up to them. - The fact that there is always a tiny bit of voting fraud is not an indictment of the integrity of our voting system. There’s always a tiny bit of noise in any system, but the cost of eliminating it isn’t worth the trouble. Tradeoffs and all. We could eliminate all crime with a police state, but the juice isn’t worth the squeeze, as they say. If you’re constantly droning on about vote fraud and stolen elections, you’re undermining the system as much as the rare fraudster.
- It’s okay to not vote, either to not vote at all, or to skip certain races. Just as the right to free speech includes the right to not speak, the right to vote includes the right to not vote. Honestly, if it’s not important to you, I’d just as soon you didn’t.
- How elections are run is largely up to the states, though Congress has a small say. But the executive branch, the president, has nothing to do with how elections are run. That’s why the courts turn the Trump administration back every time it tries to get involved.
- I’m happy for people to explain to me why they are voting the way they are voting; I’m less enthusiastic about them telling me how I should vote. And vice versa.
- Self-government is how we choose the rules under which we all agree to live peaceably. It’s how we work out our differences. And every two years we get to adjust the settings and have our say through voting. So, Election Day is like Opening Day in baseball, or something. It kicks off the next cycle of self-government.
- I share the view that lately it seems both parties try to lose, rather than to win. It seems there is a 60% governing majority sitting there waiting for one of the political parties to just start acting sane.
- Finally, if you’re interested, I described how I voted in the Dallas Morning News (also here). You probably won’t like it, but there you go. Don’t say you weren’t warned.