Six Reasons to Vote Early

Image: Cindy standing beside an Absentee Voting sign and American flag
at her polling place while pointing at her "I Voted" sticker.

Early voting starts today in my state of Missouri and I cast my ballot today before lunchtime. Hooray! Many states are already voting, including Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Colorado, Idaho, South Carolina, Texas, Louisiana, and Washington…did I forget anyone? In honor of this day, I offer six reasons voting early is an awesome idea.

Please vote early if you can and share this with others, so they can join the 18 million Americans who have already voted. Don’t look at November 5 as election day. Think of it as the LAST possible day you can vote.

Here are my six favorite reasons to vote early, illustrated with pictures of pumpkins...

#1 Allows Convenience

Image: Cindy with a tiny, convenient-sized
pumpkin in her hand by a red bush

You know your schedule best and early voting lets you choose the optimal time for you to vote. If you run in to trouble, you have time to clear it up and try again. Kathy Kale Nelson of Brainerd, MN says, “I vote early because I’m almost always travelling for work.” Mary Fitzgerald of St. Louis, MO told me she plans to take her kid to vote for the first time, so she wants to vote early to experience a shorter line.

In St. Louis, we can vote early for with no excuse needed two weeks before Election Day at any of 14 different locations around town. Ten of them are libraries. I voted at my local branch, so I could return my overdue books and get something fun to read while waiting in line. Super convenient!

#2 Reduces Anxiety

Image: A pumpkin with a
worried face

Doom scrolling and obsessive poll checking won’t decrease anxiety in the same way that turning in your ballot will. Life is hard enough, isn’t it? Give yourself the gift of feeling that sense of finality.

#3 Prevents Life from Getting in the Way

Image: A pumpkin carved with an 
upset face

Sometimes just making a plan to vote on Election Day isn't enough. Illness, an accident, bad weather, car-trouble, or other inconveniences can keep you from the polls. 

Michele Prasbrig of St. Louis told me she’s voted early in every election since she missed voting 10 years ago because she needed to take her injured pre-schooler to the pediatric emergency room! She had campaigned for a friend running for school board and looked forward to casting her ballot. Yet instead of voting at 5PM after her husband got home from work, she sat for hours and hours at the hospital with her child. Fortunately, everything turned out okay. But she told me, 

“When I was driving home from the ER and my kid was fine, when I realized it was 7:30PM and too late to vote, it was a punch in the stomach because I’d missed out on voting and I’d also missed out on voting for my friend.”

 Ever since then, Michele’s been an early voter.

#4 Guarantees Your Vote Gets Counted

Image: Cindy with a wagon full
of pumpkins to be counted and
paid for at Theis Farm

Voting early is the best way to make sure your vote gets counted, in case of problems with the mail or challenges on election day. Especially in swing states during presidential elections, day-of ballots and last-minute mail-in ballots are under extra scrutiny. Plus, sometimes disruptors seek to invalidate ballots or discourage people from voting. Early voting side-steps that circus of confusion.

#5 Frees You to Help Others on Election Day

Image: Cindy consulting with her 
daughter about a lit Jack-o-lantern

If don’t have to work or go to class for at least part of Election Day, volunteering is a great way to give an extra boost to your candidates and causes. Drive your family or neighbors to the polls and answer their questions about ballot choices (easier if you've gone through your research already and seen how they're presented on the ballot). Contact the local office of your favored political party to see if you can help on Election Day with:

• Driving voters to polls

• Putting up candidate signs at polling places

• Poll greeting (handing out candidate literature at polling places)

• Phonebanking

• Door-to-door Canvassing

If you can spare a few hours to phonebank, I HIGHLY recommend signing up for a shift with the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led climate campaign. Their phonebanks are computer-based, well-run, well-scripted, and use an automated dialer so that you’ll never get a hangup or talk to an answering machine. They have two shifts on Election Day and more even earlier!

#6 Lets Organizations Know They Can Leave You Alone

Image: A pumpkin with "VOTE"
carved in it sitting in an office

As an advocacy organizer, I love this reason that was told to me by an organizer in Kansas City, MO. When you vote early, campaigns no longer need to bother you about getting you to the polls. They don't know who you voted for, but they DO know when you voted. That allows them to target money and resources towards voters who are not as likely to vote.

It may not totally stop those annoying phone calls and texts, but it will minimize them. Good for them and good for you. Who wouldn't want that?

There you go! If I’ve convinced you to vote early, go to the www.vote411.org website by the League of Women Voters. Click on your state on the US map and it will bring you to a link where you can find voter information, including early voter information. Please share this blog and early voting information with others, so that they can get on the record with their choices, too!

Image: Book cover

Buy an autographed copy of "From Changing Diapers to Changing the World: Why Moms Make Great Advocates and How to Get Started" at my website www.changyit.com or order it from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or any independent bookstore!