Farewell, Election Day

Third, if voting according to unchanging principles, why wait to vote. This election we have a choice between a novice socialist statist politician with little grasp of economics and an honorably war-scarred statist legislator/politician with mercantilist appendages and little grasp of economics. If Obama really thinks socialism works, then he's a well-educated idiot. If Obama does not think socialism works yet espouses it inorder to get elected, then he's a threat. The country might recover from the silliness of mercantilism much easier than from the illogic of socialism, making McCain the lesser of two evils.

I can understand early voting in some cases. People going out of town, possibly moving that day, a hospital stay or a few other issues. But voting this early is too soon and especially before the first debate. Ohio has already messed up thousands of early votes and has to redo them. I can see 2 weeks before election night but not 6 weeks.

Second, our transformed democracy is reaping the harvest from ill-advised extension of the franchise. Let radical egalitarians gasp as they will at the assertion that our polity would enjoy greater health were voters not only "filtered" for theri commitment to the democratic process but actually 1)currently productive citizens, and 2)literate and informed about their civic duties. What would be wrong with limiting the privilege of suffrage to only those who actually paid net taxes in the most recent year? Would not the public be served if all votersx had to pass the same test as those hoping to become naturalized citizens?

First, let us shed notions of a civic secular religion deifying Mankind, Our Nation, or Democracy, none of which deserve reveence even as we hold for them affection. All are imperfect as the mere men who constitute or proposed them. "Civic liturgy"-- really.

Some of these folks you conclude are "slothful" and "probably barely informed" without any evidence are elderly or disabled. Surely you and your editors could have spared a caveat for them? Or was your omission mere sloth?

We don't all live in cities or have drivers Mr Will. My precinct is a 7 mile walk. I don't drive. We don't have taxis out here. Maybe on a summer day I could make the walk with my cane. But not in November here. I have a kind hearted neice who comes out every other week or so to run errands with me. Voting is important to all of us. I vote early by mail so that on Nov 4 my neice only has to worry about getting her immediate family members to the polls. I've known about Sen McCain for the past twenty years. I've been watching Sen Obama for almost two years now. If anyone on earth was going to find out stuff about Obama, it would have been the Clintons. After McCain and Obama made their picks for VP, my mind was made up. Your column was wrong on so many levels it's hard to figure the best order for them all, except that suggesting that early voters are both lazy and impulsive probably tops the list.
The best way to insure full participation from voters is to have as many safe options as your citizenry needs. So people in rural areas or people who are handicapped, or just working schedules that make it hardto be in one place between certain hours on a single day, need options like early voting.
You really need to get out more.

In my state early voting DOES entail going to a centralized polling place instead of a local precinct to vote. In my experience, those who bother to vote early are the most informed, not the least. Unlike you George, most folks are working long hours and often more than one job to get by these days. These are not slothful people. Early voting offers them a viable way to exercise good citizenship.

You really need to get out of your insular D.C. cocoon more often. You really haven't a clue and this column really doesn't have much of a point to make.

I live 7 miles from the nearest polling place. I do not drive. I walk with a cane. I might be able to do 14 miles (there and back) on a warm summer day. But November? Not where I live. Not any longer. Once every two weeks a kind hearted neice swings by my place (a 40 mile drive for her) to take me for errands. I consider voting my number one responsibility but on Nov 4 I want my neice to make sure she and her family get to th3 polls so I'm voting early.
Shame on you for writing this judgemental twaddle without even considering all the possible reasons early voting is so important for all citizens.
We don't all live in cities, Mr Will and we don't all have drivers.

Now former House speaker Newt Ginrich is criticizing the effort to save the American economy from the quagmire that his, President Bush and Senator McCain???s support of International Corporatism has placed America. These International corporatists, much like their cousins International Communists have sought to have all of the wealth and resources of the world controlled by international cartels. They have viewed the role of the US government instead of providing for the general welfare of the country to be to provide for the feed and caring of these corporate cartels. Their goal is the complete destruction of the middle class in this country. They want international low cost workers where these cartels will have the same cheap labor through out the world, no worker nor environmental protection and minimal worker benefits, if any. In the case and point of the United States, their goal is to see no difference between the Mexican and the American worker. They don???t believe in maintaining any infrastructure, hence their demagoguery of any infrastructure expenditures as pork barrel spending. They believe the American worker should be kept uneducated, hence are grandchildren and great grandchildren are now less educated by the public schools than we were. That some of these corporatists, such as presidential candidate McCain want to label themselves as populists is laughable. You look into the eyes of Senator McCain and you see the soul of Comrade Nikita Khrushchev. At the next debate, don???t be surprised if the reckless, irresponsible, and uncontrollable John McCain starts banging his shoe on the podium. And as Mr. Will makes clear they are opposed to democratic elections.

I usually find myself in agreement with you,but one thing you said here trouble me. You say that early voters are less likely to be swayed by events late in an election season. What exactly do you mean? Should we wait for the October suprise? I have to say, given recent events, that there is no rabbit that the Bush administation or the GOP could possibly produce that would change my mind.

Yes; isn???t it horrible that informed people can cast their votes before they get the opportunity to be exposed to the never ending lies from the Right in the final weeks of the campaigning.

Lies like the ones that claim Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac had something to do with the financial crisis when Fannie & Freddie never originated a single sub prime loan. When Fannie & Freddie never rated the mortgage securities that the originators sold as AAA investments; the list goes on.

Yes; it's horrible that informed people cast their votes before they get the opportunity to be exposed to the never ending lies from the Right in the final weeks of the campaigning.

Lies like the ones that claim Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac had something to do with the financial crisis when Fannie & Freddie never originated a single sub prime loan. When Fannie & Freddie never rated the mortgage securities that the originators sold as AAA investments; the list goes on.

I too prefer to vote on election day, but I am able to. Should my circumstances be different, I would appeciate the ability to do so early. I am, however, considering applying for abenstee next time to assure a paper trail. Honest elections can still have mistakes and can be honestly and legally be challenged which would require a paper trail for an honest recount.
Mr. Will, from reading these posts, I believe you have to admit that you have been handed your head!

What George Will and many others fail to take into consideration is the difficulty that many face in voting solely between certain hours of just one day. Until we can all vote on line, why not extend the voting period to allow for a full week-end or even three or four days? That way, everyone can find the time to go vote. After a few election cycles of an extended voting period, our citizens will vote in increasing numbers