How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Early Voting

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This morning, I voted early. It was an easy experience, and everyone at the polling place was nice. I didn’t have to wait in line, and everyone there was nice. The woman who looked at my ID and had me sign the tablet attesting that I am who I say I am even joked about what they would do if the lines got long.

I proudly voted for president, my congressman, county commissioner, my friend who is running for tax commissioner, and another friend who is running to unseat our corrupt sheriff — and I enthusiastically voted yes on all three of Georgia’s ballot questions. I dutifully chose the names of judges and county officials who are running unopposed, although I did write in a name rather than vote for our county commission chairman, who is under federal indictment and has no one running against him.

The whole idea of voting early marked a massive shift in my mindset. Although we’ve only had early voting in Georgia for a few years, I’ve always resisted it. I’ve always laughed when I heard Erick Erickson say on his show that you need to vote early because you never know if the weather is going to be bad on Election Day. The weather is never bad on Election Day in Georgia, although I do remember waiting outside in the rain in 2012 or 2016 (I can’t remember which).

When I would see people posting their “I Voted Early” stickers, I would think of it almost as bragging or maybe even virtue-signaling. Looking back, my stubbornness about not voting early might have been a different sort of virtue-signaling.

“I think traditionally, Republicans tend to want to go vote on Election Day,” Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump said. I was one of those for sure.

My line in the sand was that Election Day was sacred. There was something about waiting in line and having conversations with the people in line (something I would never do the other 364 days of the year). There was a certain camaraderie about the voting line for me, no matter how impatient I got — and there were enough technical errors in 2020 to make us all impatient. Maybe I should’ve seen that as a sign, but that’s another conversation for another day.

My county has only recently made voting early a convenient option for me. Before 2020, early voting took place at the county administrative building, and lines were long throughout the early voting period. That corrupt sheriff I mentioned would gladhand with people in line, stealthily campaigning at the polls by being chummy with people.

In 2020 and 2022, the county stationed early voting locations in a couple of different places in the county, but none of them were convenient to me. Georgia’s election integrity law added early voting days — How’s that for “Jim Crow in the 21st century,” disenfranchising people by giving them more opportunities to vote? — and the county added another early voting location that made more sense for my family.

The biggest factor that led me to change my mind about voting early was that Election Day is going to be a long, busy day for me. That’s right: I’ll be busy serving you, dear reader, so it’s a relief to know that I’ve taken care of my vote and don’t have to worry about it that day. I can imagine that a lot of people feel that way, and now it makes sense to me.

I know that not everybody feels the way I do about early voting, but this is a journey that took me years to make. What I do know is that whether you vote early or on Election Day, whether you’re punching a hole in a ballot or tapping a touchscreen, your vote counts! Please make your voice heard by voting this election season.