I voted today.
As with the last several elections, it was via early voting. My schedule was relatively light today, lighter than it’s going to be next week, and probably lighter than election day. Getting it out of the way seemed like a good idea.
This time I avoided the mistake I made last time, slipping in during lunch on a weekday instead of doing it on Saturday morning. Thankfully I don’t live too far from one of the locations. The wait was less, about 30 minutes compared to over 90 minutes in 2020. Some of it might have also been aided by the absence of Covid distancing rules and protocols.
As with last time, I’m annoyed that I had to go in person. My usual complaint / whine is that we can do all kinds of things remotely, such as banking and business transactions, but voting still requires we show up in person. A lot of states let you mail in your ballot, which I’d definitely settle for. But currently in Louisiana you need a good excuse to get a mail-in ballot, and a witness signature for it to be accepted. Given the iron clad control Republicans have on state government here, the chance of that changing anytime soon is nil.
Anyway, my vote went Democratic, at least at the national level. I was prepared to vote for Biden, despite any age issues, but Harris seems to have risen to the moment. I have no illusions that Democrats are perfect, but right now they seem like the only sane option. That said, I learned a long time ago that complaining about Trump isn’t a good use of my time. If you think it’s in your interest that he get back in power, I think we’re well past the point of convincing each other.
If the polls are to be believed, this election is balanced on a knife’s edge. If you live in the US and care about the outcome, be sure to find a way to vote, particularly if you’re in a swing state, even if it’s a hassle. If you don’t, your opinion literally won’t count.
SelfAwarePatterns 
It’s election season here in Australia also. There is an election in my state, Queensland, an election today in our fed capital, Canberra and a fed election next year around May. Fortunately, we have more options here in Oz and I was able to vote for an Independent for my local district. I’ve come to the conclusion that partisan politics can never really fix anything, but Independents and small parties like the Greens sometimes have considerable influence even in Fed elections when margins are tight. They are likely to show up more in both state and fed houses, so our future looks interesting. If I was living in the US, I’d probably vote Dems, not because they can fix everything, but simply to stop things getting much, much worse. I’ll be watching the coverage of the election here in sunny Queensland with interest.
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Unfortunately, independents and third parties here struggle to get any traction, even by the standards of a first past the post type system. The structure of our constitution virtually guarantees politics will consolidate into two major parties. (Although US parties have died before. But within a decade or two the system tends to resettle into two parties again.)
Good luck with your elections! I hope ours doesn’t drop a turd on the world.
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Yes, and our system couldn’t be more different: compulsory voting and preferential voting as well. It’s the preferences that work in the indies’ favour. Our Greens are also very vocal here and get as much air-time as the majors. Fingers crossed re Kamala.
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A few states here are experimenting with ranked choice voting. I’d love to see it spread. I could see it helping more moderate candidates get elected.
But our issue with third parties is deeper, having to do with how our government is structured, a multi-branch system with staggered terms of office, which requires allies in the other branches to get things done. It encourage broad long lasting coalitions, which usually coalesce into the two major parties.
Thanks. It seems like Harris has done everything right. I hope it’s enough.
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I don’t think Harris is doing everything right to get elected – her policies and alignment are actually far more popular than she is. E.g., she favors workers a little more than bosses, whereas Trump is squarely behind the bosses. She should talk more about breaking up monopolies to fight greed-flation, and legislating the right to repair one’s own tractor or iPhone, for examples. Like many Democrats before her, most of whom lost, she is being far too milquetoast-y about it.
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Maybe. Although every politician has to weigh who would be brought onboard by a position, and who would be lost. And of course what to spend time emphasizing. It’s that balance that often makes most politicians seem milquetoasty. Usually the uncompromising types don’t make it out of the primaries.
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Except for Trump, I guess. But it takes one stance to make it past the mainstream media – moderately conservative economics and moderate to liberal social politics, ideally. And another to attract voters when it comes down to the wire.
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Even Trump seems affected by it. Looks at how much his position has shifted around in this election on abortion and IVF. And a lot of his incoherence seems to allow people to read what they want from the word salad.
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We are in a situation when it makes sense to vote for lesser evil. The problem is that I could not see (according to my criteria) which evil will be inferior in the next 4 years. Therefore, I added a name (not Trump or Harris) to the ballot.
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Where I live we can’t write in candidates. I usually just skip that part of the ballot if none of the options work for me. I actually skipped over a bunch of state amendments on the one today, mostly because I had no real interests at stake for any of them.
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Mailed mine in today. Can’t wait for these political ads to go away.
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Amen to that, although I’m sure you’re seeing a lot more of them than I am. My plan at this point it to mostly tune out election coverage until November 6.
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Ditto!
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Louisiana? Tough crowd for rational folks to deal with. I’m told living amongst the enemy is the only way to affect change. Good luck.
If Dickwad gets elected it’ll be what this country deserves: Collapse and civil war.
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Hey, we can’t be good at food, music, and rationality. 🙂
Living amongst the enemy does, I think, give me insight into why they vote for him. It makes me fear that, even if we dodge the bullet this time, there will be others like him, until the underlying issues (effects of globalization, etc.) are solved, or pass with time.
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I agree with you that complaining about Trump is not a great use of time. I’ve lost a lot of interest in talking about politics with family and friends, as the conversation typically goes into “I can’t believe he said that!” territory. We’ve been saying that comment for many years now. Ugh.
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Yeah, and my sense is the outrage just fuels his support. It seems better to point out to people why he’s not good for them.
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