This Isn’t Just Election Day, It’s Also National Equalization Day

In case you’ve been in a coma for the past few months, today is election day. That’s meant a lot of things to me over the years, but this year I’m hoping it’s the day the onslaught of unwanted text messages, robo-calls and other intrusions from politicians and political parties will finally stop. But it’s an occasion far more important than the end of intrusive pleas for money.

Today’s the national day of equalization.

OK, I made that up, but there’s a stronger case to be made here than many others we’ve designated as federal holidays. Election day really is the day when every citizen is equal. Money, status, followers or whatever mean diddly squat when you’re in the voting booth.

Your vote is equal to mine, and mine is equal to everyone else’s. Billionaires, celebrities, politicians and “influencers” want to sway all of us to listen to their opinion on candidates. Because they know that every vote counts. Mine can cancel theirs the same way yours could either cancel, or boost, either.

Unfortunately, it’s also the day that reveals our divisions more clearly than most. It’s only when you get within the mandated distance where “no campaigning allowed” signs are enforced that you are finally free of the incessant fake smiles, semi-sincere grins or outright scowls of campaign workers.

That’s because the only opinion that matters when you’re in the voting booth is yours.

My first election was in the 1960s, and even in those tumultuous times, I don’t remember the national guard being called out to protect voting places. That’s happening today and is a sad commentary on how far civil discourse has fallen in this country.

Behaviors like those used to be limited to third world countries. As a young man, I covered elections where the mere act of voting could cost someone their life. Today, I know far better how those long-ago voters felt. But I learned something important watching people risk their lives to vote:voting matters…probably far more than most of us realize.

And still, any of our fellow citizens can’t be bothered to vote if it’s too hot, too cold, too rainy, too crowded, or too inconvenient. They don’t realize that people — real live, flesh-and-blood people — have died to give them the right to ho-hum the supreme act of citizenship.

They’ve never lived in a place where voting could mean your life and they take voting for granted. Because they’ve never had to sacrifice for things they take for granted.

I’ve written this before, but I believe it’s worth repeating: if you don’t exercise the right, you forfeit the right to an opinion about the election’s outcome or the subsequent direction of the country. You had your chance and you blew it.

This election, however, I’ve gotten the feeling that something is different for far more people this time around. The impression is that some have realized that voting means they really want a say about what happens in their country.

Early voting numbers indicate that nearly half of the total votes in the 2020 elections (a total of 154.6 million) have already been cast this year. In Georgia, more than four million people have already voted, nearly eighty percent of the 2020 total turnout. North Carolina and other states report equally impressive numbers. I voted early and waited almost as long to vote as I did on election day in the last presidential election.

A heavy turnout a good sign for democracy, provided it means we’re all agreeing to participate in the process and the result, and not declare “my candidate or else.”

Elections aren’t supposed to be just about winning, they’re about the citizenry telling candidates we believe they’re best qualified to do the jobs they’ve been campaigning for. It’s also when and how we remind them we have the power to remove them if they fail to perform.

There are also important measures on plenty of state ballots this year, from Florida’s Amendment 2 that would enshrine the right of Floridians to hunt and fish within their state to a pair of hotly-contested initiatives in Colorado: Proposition KK would levy a 6.5 percent excise tax on the sale of firearms and ammunition and Proposition 127 would ban the hunting of mountain lions in the state.

I’m not ever going to tell you how to vote, but I won’t hesitate to remind you that you should.

As the results come in, we’ll keep you posted.