Get the Vote Out

I’ve been reading some of the comments on the Time Goes By vote by mail posting. And this comment caught my eye… in support of voting in person at a polling place, “the highest turnout in American history was in the late 1800s in cities when political parties pretty much turned Election Day into a civic participation festival with parades, picnics and sometimes more than a little celebratory drinking. This created a collective sense that elections celebrated our nation, our citizenship.”

But what this ignores is the fact that all of those who dislike a parade, a crowd, weren’t there. I wouldn’t have been there. My personality Type; an INFP, doesn’t tolerate crowding very well. We’re all different. And so the mail-in ballot is perfect for me and others who prefer a little space.

When we lived in Janesville, a town of about 900 people at the time, we had to vote in person and at the Fire Hall. I hated it. Oh, I voted, but I didn’t look forward to it. It was a job and not a celebration. A small room with a dozen or more people in it. Some I knew; most were strangers. No thanks.