1 September 2020 — 1339mdt
Plus, the irrefutable case for a mail ballot
My 50 years of voting in person at the polls
on election day officially ended yesterday
School board election, 2014
Beginning in 1968, when the voting age was still 21, I have always cast my ballot at my local polling place on election day. Doing so never was inconvenient, let alone burdensome. I was there gladly, joyfully discharging an obligation, and exercising a right, of citizenship. The presence of my friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens, reminded me that my vote affected others, causing me, I believe, to cast a more altruistic vote than I might have sitting alone at my kitchen table surrounded by bills straining my budget.
Unofficially, my 50-year run ended in December, 2018, when I was hospitalized for kidney failure. I knew then that, in my weakened condition, I had to avoid crowds during the influenza season. I resolved to switch to an absentee ballot. But I could not bring myself to apply for an absentee ballot until Sunday evening, when I emailed a PDF of my signed application to Flathead County’s elections department. Yesterday at 1413 MDT, I received an email confirmation that I am now on the permanent absentee ballot list (thank you, Monica, for confirming so quickly).
I’ll miss the sense of community that voting in person generates, but I do not regret switching to an absentee ballot. Both my personal situation and the Covid-19 pandemic make voting by mail the only safe and secure option for casting ballots. That’s why on 19 March I urged Montana to close the polls and vote by mail during the pandemic. So did many citizens, officials, and civic leaders; so many that their numbers, and the logic of their request, resulted in a mail ballot primary election on 2 June.
The irrefutable case for a mail ballot on 2 November
Since then the pandemic in Montana has grown by almost an order of magnitude, making an even more compelling case for conducting the 2 November general election by mail ballot. Montana’s 15 July mask-up mandate flattened the Covid curve, but the curve has not bent downward because more and more group activities — some, such as high school and college sports, far from essential — are occurring.
That’s why most Montana counties — but not Flathead County will vote by mail on 2 November:
(KPAX) Nearly 40 Montana counties have decided to go to all-mail ballots for the Nov. 3 general election – including all but one of the state’s eight most populous counties.
Flathead County is the only county with a major city – Kalispell – that has decided against all mail ballots, opting to have polling places open for the general election, on Nov. 3. It will still send mail ballots out to those who request absentee ballots.
But the counties that include Billings, Bozeman, Missoula, Helena, Butte, Great Falls and Hamilton have decided to mail ballots to all registered voters, because of difficulties arranging Election Day polling places during the coronavirus pandemic.
The all Republican Flathead County Commission’s decision to hold an at the polls election on 2 November when the Covid-19 activity in the county now is an order of magnitude higher than when the county decided on an all mail primary cannot be considered wise or responsible. So, what drove the commissioners’ decision? Most likely, a mulish determination to keep faith with President Trump’s hostility to voting by mail (himself exempted).
Trump’s opposing voting by mail during a pandemic is, of course, a brazen attempt to suppress voting by Democrats. He and his sycophants fear viscerally that their arguments and policies would not prevail in the marketplace of ideas. Therefore, to retain power, they’re willing to employ undemocratic methods to seize control of our government. They’re completely comfortable with minority rule and with authoritarian rule. That alone is more than reason enough to throw their bums out of office on election day.
It may be too late to reverse that indefensible decision by the Flathead’s commissioners, but it’s not too late to elect Democratic county commissioner candidate Kirsten Larson, thereby installing a desperately needed voice of reason on the commission.
If you live in Flathead County, or another in person voting county, apply for an absentee ballot by email right now — you can do so by email — and plan to mark and return you ballot as soon as you receive it because of the Post Office’s increasingly long delivery times. I’m not a fan of early voting, but these are not ordinary times: vote as early as you can and track your ballot.
I’ll be marking my ballot at my kitchen table, but as I do, my heart will be in my precinct’s poll, and my thoughts will be of the good and decent people whose lives will be affected by my vote. I won’t look at my bills.