Hear my confession: the other day I did something I thought I’d never admit to doing, and I feel a little guilty about it.
Thankfully for my family – and my status as a free man – it wasn’t illegal or even unethical. Far from it, in fact. No, I decided to cast my ballot in the 2024 presidential election early. I did so, in part, because it was convenient and available thanks to the vast changes in voter laws over the past number of years. I can’t say for sure when it started, but Virginia began offering “early voting” in person at least a decade and a half ago. I remember a liberal friend bragging in 2008 about how she’d just done her civic duty – by voting for Barack Obama.
I passed her exuberance back then off as typical delusions of a woman who bought in to Obama’s “Hope and Change” nonsense, though she did point out that, one way or another, the 2008 election would be historic – for either electing the first black president or for elevating the first woman (Sarah Palin) to serve as vice president.
Unfortunately for America, slightly over half the country fell in love with the notion of shattering all previous racial barriers and sent half-African American Obama to the White House. Palin’s defeat was barely mentioned by the establishment talkers, and the “first woman” tidbit didn’t really receive its due attention until Crooked Hillary Clinton’s gambit in 2016.
Then there was cackling Kamala Harris’s successful election in 2020 as the lower half of senile Joe Biden’s non-historic – and very questionable – triumph four years ago. But we can’t do much about it now. What conservatives can do, in 2024, is learn the lessons from 2020 regarding early and mail-in voting and seek to turn the rules against the liberals who devised them. That’s the reason why I did the previously unthinkable and voted well over a month before Election Day.
It turns out that there are a number of practical advantages, besides convenience, going for heading to the polls now. In an article titled “The Economics of Early Voting”, Ned Ryun wrote at American Greatness after the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life in July:
“Consider the economics of it all. Early Mail Voting: Voting by mail shortly after receiving your ballot costs the movement approximately $10-12 per vote, maybe even less, depending on how many calls, texts, postcard reminders or door knocks are needed. If you return it the day you get it, the cost could be as low as $2-3. Early In-Person Voting: Voting in-person with the week or two after voting locations open increases the cost to around $20, but again, could be less depending on when you go... Waiting until Election Day can cost up to $100 per vote. People might say, no way it costs that much. Yes, it does...
“So please understand that it is essential to recognize that engaging with the current rules of the electoral system is not a betrayal of principles but a strategic maneuver to ensure the success of our candidates and causes. Think of voting early as your way of giving back.
“[B]y their very nature, these mid- to low-propensity voters are more costly to turn out. So again, consider the economics of it all: let’s say a 4 out of 4 voter insists on voting on Election Day and costs $100 for his or her vote. Let’s say that person votes early in person; that saves Trump and the outside groups potentially $80 to be used to secure maybe another 3–4 mid-to-low propensity voters.”
This last justification is probably the most significant one. It’s not as though you can walk down the street and spot the illusive “low propensity” voters on sight or they wear badges boasting, “I don’t usually vote and I’ve already prepared a basket load of excuses for why I’ll be busy on November fifth.” Their individual reasons are buried deep in their skulls and won’t be unlocked easily. But some spare cash in the Trump campaign coffers may do the trick.
Ryun obviously offers a purely financial incentive for other folks to do what I did a few days ago. I’ve always been a “4 out of 4” voter having never skipped a presidential election I’ve been eligible for since I crossed over the age 18 threshold. Unfortunately, I missed Ronald Reagan’s landslide in 1984, but it made me all the more ready to show up for George H.W. Bush in 1988.
I’ve voted in most other elections, too, including some local ones where there was only one candidate. I haven’t been a down-the-line Republican, either. During my college years, I recall marking my ballot for the “Big Green” initiative in California in 1990, and, I’m ashamed to concede now, that I voted for Mayor Tom Bradley the final time he was on the ballot. I remember he was unopposed, too.
So those are examples of occasions when I was young and dumb, but it was California, right? The only difference being that now there are millions upon millions of equally empty-headed abortion-lovers who’ve had their brains filled with rotten mush about “women’s bodies” and sanitized the issue by saying “women should have the freedom to discuss the matter with their doctors and make their own choices.” Tim Walz repeated the argument again on Tuesday night.
What a bunch of crap! But this is all the more motivation for reaching those “low propensity” voters Ryun mentioned in his piece.
As if the above aims weren’t sufficient, Ryun added another important validation for heading to your polling place at your first convenience. “Another aspect to consider with absentee ballots or early voting is that early return or voting helps create a positive psychological narrative.”
This shouldn’t be discounted. Conservatives enjoy seeing reports on the news about turnout being heavy in the early going, a needed boost to counterbalance others suggesting that Kamala Harris is “gaining” in certain poll aspects, which defies not only common sense, but also discourages the “low propensity voters” from bothering to get off the couch to vote for Trump. There may be a million reasons to vote for the candidate with the superior agenda, but it’s not enough when some suspect their vote will be lost in a sea of liberal/communist electronic tabulations.
There are other logical bases as well. By voting early, you eliminate the “you never know” factor from your 2024 election considerations. Every one of us concerned citizens who’ve spent the past few years informing ourselves on the candidates’ positions and platform intend to vote. Most of us would walk over hot coals or crawl over broken glass to vote for Donald Trump this year – and against the impending disaster that would be cackling Kamala Harris.
And admittedly the odds of being able to succeed in voting are very high. Our polling place is not far from where I live. I’ll have plenty of time on Election Day to go the polls, wait in line if necessary, and cast my ballot as intended. But what if something unexpected comes up? What if the car breaks down? What if the house catches fire? What if there are armed miscreants preventing everyone with a “Trump 2024” sticker on their car from entering the polling place?
Or what if I’ve fallen and can’t get up and I don’t have one of those LifeLock necklaces within reach? Or what if I have a migraine suddenly strike and I’m incapacitated? Or dislocate my knee getting out of bed? Voting early alleviates all of those possibilities and brings peace of mind.
Casting your ballot now also saves you from the typically insane last couple weeks before Election Day when your local candidates’ campaigns are frantically trying to reach you to ensure that you’re one of those “four out of four” voters they can count on. Voicemails on your smart phone have now replaced the old-fashioned answering machines, but I recall a time when our home machine was filled to capacity on one day by celebrities and celebrity politicians having recorded robocalls begging us to go the polls to vote for candidate X or Y. That was back in the days where we had to wait until Election Day – or have bothered to try and do it via absentee ballot.
Today’s convenience of it all is nice in that regard.
But all things considered, I would opt to go back to mostly Election Day voting with paper ballots if I had a choice. That’s not an option now. It’s a different world in 2024, and, as Trump has said many times this cycle, we’ve got to go with the rules as they currently stand. There’s a noticeable difference in not only his attitude this year, but also in the GOP’s preparations for a different kind of get-out-the-vote operation. Under the lead of Trump daughter-in-law Laura Trump and others, the national party is dumping millions into encouraging early voting.
The Democrats have out fundraised us, too. You can bet that Kamala and Tampon Tim’s crew is begging every college student, welfare grifter, abortion monger, NeverTrumper, single female and illegal alien to swamp their respective poll places with their presence and will ensure that said person has the capacity and language skills to get the job done.
For us, it appeared as though there was a steady turnout at the polling place well over a month before “the” day. Democrats had set up a canopy outside to pass out literature and there was a woman with blue sample ballots casing the parking lot to ensure she caught each poor unsuspecting soul as they exited their cars. She must’ve seen my “Trump 2024” bumper sticker, because she merely smiled and said “Hi” instead.
But think of how low-information voters take her sample and use it to fill Kamala’s bubble.
This is why we have to get out there and fight. And, to the extent possible, trust that our votes will count. In my jurisdiction, we use voting machines that tabulate the ballots. They’re the same ones that will be used on Election Day, so there’s no reason to hold off because we don’t trust the process. Here in Virginia, we have Governor Glenn Youngkin keeping an eye on things.
There’s still a part of me that doesn’t trust it. But there’s also simple reality to confront. Early voting, thanks to Ned Ryun’s – and others’ urging – made too much sense not to do it. So give it some thought and get up the urge to give back. You can be one of those “early returns” the pundits talk about on Election Night.
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