My parents, who never revealed directly whom they voted for, were always the first people in line at their local polling place in Fayette County. I have never missed an election since turning 18, including every primary election. I even voted absentee all those years when I was at Ball State.
I live in Tippecanoe County now. There is rarely a contested primary in the local Democratic Party, so I vote in the Republican primary to defeat the evil ones. But I always went to the polls before work on Election Day. And my students expect to see that "I Voted" sticker on the real day.
So why the change this year?
Several reasons actually came to mind when making this decision. First, my county has gone to vote centers, which means I can choose from only 20 sites on Election Day. Since they are expecting about 60,000 voters on Nov. 4th, that is about 3,000+ per site. So, on a practical level, voting now makes sense. (Although I will say that I like this system, and the officials are doing a great job getting staff and machines in place.)
I have also researched the issues and candidates and know which I wanted to select. (I used the fall voters guide locally -- www.nlci.com/ccr .) It took me only 15 minutes from joining the line to casting my final ballot. There's no reason to wait longer, when I am already sure. Actually, I have been ready for weeks to cast this ballot.
This early voting in various sites around the county is new to Indiana. In fact, other than courthouses, there are few counties which offer early sites. As a political geek, I kind of wanted to see how these things were working out. In fact, the Lafayette Journal and Courier indicated that the lines were 30-45 minutes long yesterday. When I went today at 3:40, it was very short. And they have recorded about 2400 votes in two days. I have no doubt we'll pass the 30% we did in the primary in May. (11,000 out of 37,000 cast early in May.)
But the main reason I think I busted a gut to get from school to the polls in time today was that I am just that excited about this election. I sense a huge change ahead, and for a Hoosier progressive that's a welcome change.
Please check out your candidates and know where your polling place is. There have been many changes across the state and you will need to be prepared. I will see you at the polls as I work them...and wear that sticker proudly!