The lifeblood of democracy is voting. Many politicians would not act the way they do if the faced an interested and informed electorate. That does not mean, however, that we should not expect voters to make an effort and put up with a degree of inconvenience in order to cast their ballots.
One of my gripes with many COVID emergency measures related to voting is that the pandemic was used as an excuse to put in place voting changes that had not been, and under normal circumstances would not have been, approved in the legislative process. Once in place, and justified by a once-in-a-lifetime emergency (which is now looking like it’s going to last significantly longer than any public official was willing to admit a year and a half ago), these measures become the new normal. Anyone who opposes making these temporary, emergency measures permanent is subject to the harshest criticism and accused of voter suppression.((There are any number of policy proposals that are like ratchets: once in place, by however narrow a majority or whatever other means, they can never be repealed, like the Affordable Care Act a/k/a Obamacare.))
An involved electorate must be an informed electorate. Despite the rise of the internet and social media (and largely (or entirely) unread blogs, like this one), the traditional media sources, like newspapers and television, still have the lion’s share of opportunity (and responsibility) to educate the people about the issues. This is serious stuff and they are failing. Part of the failure is the result of underestimating the capacity of the audience to understand the issues. Instead of providing details,((See my post from almost five months ago, The News Media Should Give Us More Details — Not Just Conclusions.)) we get sound bites. Judicial decisions are reported through the lens of partisan politics with little to no mention of the actual bases of the decisions. Many opinion pieces are labelled as “analysis.”
As to the mechanics of voting, I believe that the method for voting most likely to impress the voter with the significance of the act is the traditional one, showing up at a polling station on one specified day. I would prefer that to be the common means of voting (and it is the duty of election officials to make certain that polling places are reasonably convenient in location and sufficiently staffed and equipped to handle a turnout of 100%). That is not to say that there should never be provision for what used to be called “absentee voting” and is now (to make it sound better) called “voting by mail,” but that should not be the default method.
Jay Bohn
September 9, 2021