It’s Game Time, Early Voting, & All the Way Down the Ballot

Is today the first day of “Early Voting” or is it really just the first of 19 days that you are allowed to vote for the Nov 3rd elections? Calling it “Early Voting” makes it sound like you are doing something wrong by voting early and should wait until the “real” election day (in this case Nov 3rd).

On the contrary, I believe that voting is so important that you should vote at your earliest opportunity once you have made up your mind on the choices you will make on your ballot. If you wait until the last day to vote (aka Election Day), there are countless things that could keep you from voting (severe weather, family emergency, work responsibilities, personal illness, etc.).  It seems risky to unnecessarily put off voting until the last possible day.

One good reason to delay is if you are still researching the many candidates and issues that will be on your ballot when you arrive at your polling site.  While virtually everyone has decided how they are going to vote for President, there are very important offices and issues down the ballot that will likely have an even greater impact on your local community than the President will.  While the ballots in the six counties I represent will all be different as you go down the ballot, everyone will be voting on at least the following (my vote is in bold):

NOTE: It is very important to remember that you will NOT have the option of doing one-punch straight-ticket voting in this election. That means you will need to make your selections all the way down the ballot so I encourage you to plan accordingly as it may take a bit longer for you to complete your ballot than in years past (if you used the one-punch option).

We have links to the elections pages from all six of the counties in HD-69 (Archer, Baylor, Clay, Foard, Knox, Wichita) below if you’d like to see polling locations or take a look at a sample ballot from your area.

The ability to get out and freely and fairly vote for our representation at all levels of government is a vital component for our system to work. Please take advantage of the extra week of early voting and get out and vote!