
A sign indicates the location for early in-person voting at the Clermont County Board of Elections building in Batavia on Oct. 21, 2024.
Friday, October 25, 2024, was a perfect day in Batavia. The temperature hovered in the mid-70s with a warming breeze. The bright sunlight and blue skies enhanced the glow of the changing leaves. It was perfect for a bike ride, a game of pickleball, or a canoe paddle on Stonelick Lake. So why was a group of over 100 perfectly sane Clermonters from every point in the county standing in line waiting to vote eleven days before Election Day?
So we asked ten randomly selected voters why they were voting early. In a word, they answered that it was convenient. (“Convenience” is consistent with years of Ohio electoral research.) One couple said that they would be on vacation on election day. One woman said that she had an important doctor’s appointment on Nov. 5. Another said that she was working the polls on election day.
Several were voting early because they wanted to make sure that their vote was cast. They added that you never know what might go wrong: personal illness, car trouble, bad weather, or voting machine problems. One couple stressed the importance this election holds for them: “This is the most important election in our lifetime. We wanted to make sure we did our duty.”
None of those interviewed reported that they were voting early because their candidate had asked them to do so.
Ohio’s Secretary of State reported that as of Oct. 25, some 14,008 Clermonters had voted early and another 14,117 had cast absentee ballots.
On a personal note… In 1972 the right to vote was extended to American citizens aged 18-20 years old. I was among the 11 million of the newly enfranchised who voted in the presidential election. I have now voted in 13 presidential elections and in dozens of state and local elections, all of them on election day. After 50 years of voting on election day, the act on that date has taken on special meaning – a kind of sacred civic ritual.
In the early days of the Republic, there was no set day for elections. It varied by state and time. It wasn’t until 1848 when Congress established that presidential elections would be held on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in the month of November. Several states, mostly in the South, had a different date for Congressional elections. It wasn’t until 1872 that the election dates were merged.
The convenience of a “voting season” will attract its supporters. The hardheaded throwbacks will insist on casting their ballots on election “day”. Oh, I’ll be voting on Nov. 5 at my local polling station.