early voting? not me

Some might say that the election is a week away, but in a very real sense it has already begun. And I don't mean that the campaigning has begun or there have been debates. I mean the election has begun because of early voting. The last I saw, something like 70 million votes have already been cast. I see a lot of social media posts celebrating the number of early voters, encouraging people to vote early, and bragging of having voted early. I find it all misguided.

I'm not opposed to the idea of making early voting available. I understand that it's arguably a necessary accommodation to reduce the barriers to voting that some might have. But I don't think we should be encouraging people to vote early as a primary strategy. It really should be for situations where voting on election day presents some kind of difficulty. That's not to say that anyone should have to prove hardship; no eligible voter should be stopped from voting early if they want to. I just wish we didn't have so many people wanting to, and I don't think we should be encouraging people to want to.

If you vote early, you voluntarily give up information. I get that many people have made up their minds, and can't imagine what could possibly make them change their minds -- and that's more true of this year's presidential election than most. I really do get that. Like many people, I've made up my mind and put the probability of my changing it between now and next Tuesday at somewhere around zero. And yet, maybe something will happen to make me change it. I doubt it, but I don't see where trading that possibility is worth the right to brag "I voted already" for a few days.

I'll be at the polls on Election Day.