Should You Vote Early? Ask the Man in the Mirror

Topic: Perspective

“But Trump is telling everyone to vote early…”

If you’ve been surfing any election materials online whatsoever, you have most certainly seen commentary like that.  It’s not just President Trump, but Kari Lake, Kash Patel, Stephen Miller, and many in the president’s inner orbit saying the same, and a host of influencers.  I have gotten so much exercise in replying to comments like this I’ve decided to leave my thoughts here for immediate and quick future reference outlining why I feel the way I do about early voting.

For context, early voting was never a staple of elections until the 1980s.  Prior to that, thanks to Texas, there were laws that allowed for various exemptions to cast a ballot early, but this impacted very little of the electorate and was intended to provide relief for legitimate cases that would either be allowed to vote early or be unable to participate in the election.  I am not entirely inhospitable and think there are reasonable cases to allow for limited windows of in-person (not mail) early voting for doctors, nurses, pilots, election workers, truckers, and other shift workers, and people who for a valid reason will not be able to turn up on Election Day, like someone having an operation and remaining in the hospital.  Now, thanks to the expansion of early voting law, our elections have turned into a weeks-long fracas that no longer resemble what any sane person would devise as a means of electing public officials, including the most powerful office holder in the world.  You may recall that Texas had 91% of its presidential vote in before Election Day thanks to Governor Abbott ordering a third full week of early voting ahead of the big day in response to the Wuhan flu.

You know those annoying experts that you find in places like the gym?  You’re going in there to do your thing, and you’ve got your way of doing the exercise, but they come over and recommend how to do it right, or how to do it better, without having ever been asked?  I’m going to try and avoid that today.  I am going to strike a balance between hardcore election integrity truther and get out the vote activist, with the simple understanding in place that not everyone who reads this article is as invested in the granular details of fixing America’s elections, or even in agreement about the dire condition of them, as I have been and still am.

First, I want as many votes for Trump to be cast as possible.  If you are truly unable to vote on Election Day, then by all means, ensure that you cast your vote early.  Most states are voting by now, and many of them in-person.  Some of you will be forced to vote by mail, or stuff your ballots in drop boxes somewhere, and it is my sincere hope that sometime in the future, we overhaul all of those third world practices that enable fraud. Please understand that election integrity diehards believe that not only is early voting not the best practice for casting your vote, but that it was specifically designed to allow for election riggers to facilitate fraud on Election Day by tipping the needed margins just right.  I made this point yesterday on Truth Social:

I am casting a vote in a key battleground state this year for the first time in my life (Arizona).  I have the opportunity to vote early starting right now.  Given that many of you are afraid you will be disenfranchised on Election Day, what assurance can you give me that if I cast my vote now, it won’t be discarded or identified early to get a read on how many votes are needed to tip Arizona on November 5?

That point was made very effectively.  No one could give me any assurance my vote would be more secure being cast ahead of time.  When you really think about it, what sense does that make?  Do we really believe that on one hand, the government will steal elections, but they wouldn’t go as far to take advantage of the fact that you gave them more votes earlier, with weeks to figure out the math?

I made the point in my personal journal recently that this is not so much about preference and election concerns as it is about personal freedom.  Some of you simply like to vote early or are using early voting as a means of ensuring you don’t fall ill or run into work or travel related problems, and that is fine – even though we know into the indefinite future exactly when Election Day is on any year – the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November.  We had no issues as a society navigating this back when elections weren’t a month-long free-for-all, but I digress.  Yes, Election Day voting is the intended way to vote, and it is the most secure way to vote, given that it allows potential bad actors less time to react to your vote.

Why is Trump and company pushing early voting?  If I had to guess, it’s to get as many low propensity ballots in as possible, given that those voters, by default, are the least likely to drag themselves to the polls or be otherwise preoccupied from voting on Election Day, and are needed to offset the low propensity ballots that Democrat harvest and stuff in ballot boxes over that same period.  This doesn’t change the fact that Election Day voting is still, in my opinion, the best practice.

So, why all the fear?  Because of Arizona’s 2022 midterm election.  Maricopa County deliberately made it as hard as possible to vote on Election Day, knowing it would be a 3:1 GOP turnout, and manufactured its own crisis to quell the Election Day surge, which is what got Kari Lake past what appears to be a manipulated primary that year against the Arizona establishment.  They even made sure it happened in Republican-heavy precincts.  This, plus the fear that a panicked administrative state will stage a hoax crisis, has many traditional Republican Election Day-only voters itching to vote early at the urging of many big-time influencers who have prevailed upon President Trump to urge the same thing.

I won’t make this about lecturing against fear-based decision making.  I will make it about freedom.  You, fellow American, have the right to vote how you want and when you want in accordance with your state law.  If you want to vote early, that is your right, and it is not appropriate for me to shame you for exercising your rights, even though I think the system is designed to facilitate manipulation and if you can vote in person on Election Day, you should.  It is also your sacred right to vote on November 5 in person at your polling location.

My anger at this situation is kindled not because people disagree about which method is the best and most secure way to cast a vote, but because so many people who have opted for the early voting method are not doing so out of personal preference or necessity, but because they are afraid of being disenfranchised by the government.  Image yourself back in high school, dealing with a bully who harasses you on your way into the school building every day.  Eventually, fearing for your safety and dignity, you arrange a deal with the janitor to let you in through a side door to avoid the bully.  It works for a while, until it is found out and then ruined for you.  Deep inside, you understand that refusing to stand up and do your damndest to knock that bully’s teeth down his throat is only ensuring the maltreatment will continue indefinitely.

So it is with your fear of the government, if you are changing your voting preference based on the “what if” factor.  If you want to vote on Election Day out of Republican tradition, or if you feel it is the most secure way of doing so that offers the smallest window of response time for someone who would intercept your voting preference and adjust to it, then you have a right to do it.  Being squeezed out of executing your ballot as you wish is a violation of your lawful rights.

Try to imagine a scenario in which black women were disenfranchised from casting a ballot by the thousands on Election Day in the heart of Philadelphia.  What do you think the response would be?  Do you think the Democrat apparatus would spend four years trying to skirt the disenfranchisement and try to trick the system?  No, of course not.  The Democrats would engage every legal force at their disposal, crucify the people responsible, hang their heads on pikes at the entrance of the city, make every white person in Pennsylvania wear a sandwich board proclaiming themselves to be the worst racists since their slave owning Democrat predecessors, and then expand ballot access and early voting strictly within the most Democrat-heavy precincts in Philly.

Does anyone too afraid to vote on Election Day when that is their preferred method think that this will not further encourage government to infringe upon your rights?  My recommendation to you outside of giving you textbook theories about why you should vote on Election Day as a best practice is to remind you to assert your rights.  Grab your balls, proverbially speaking, and show up at the polls on Election Day.  If you are prohibited in any way from casting a ballot when you haven’t yet voted and are legally registered to do so, then raise holy hell and refuse to leave.  Contact your county Sheriff or the local police and file a report.  In other words, make them do their damn jobs, all the way down to showing up at the voting center and defending your right to cast a ballot, and be willing to get arrested if it comes to it. None of the above requires you to become violent - but it does require you to have some moral courage.

I don’t care if it is hot (or cold, or wet, or snowy), I don’t care if you don’t want to stand in line, and I don’t care if you’re going to be late to work.  Many people are voting in this election because they think Donald Trump is all that stands between themselves and a work camp.  I’m here to tell you that if you are discouraged one iota from voting in person because you are afraid of the government, then you’ve already lost the battle for freedom.  You will register your guns on a list, take the next shot, and rat on your neighbors as required as the frog is boiled ever so slowly.  Stop being a pushover, and if you want to vote on Election Day, then do it, and force every magistrate in your bubble to stand by you in the free exercise of your rights.

I will be showing up at my polling center on November 5, 2024, and not one second before, and I will not be stopped from casting my ballot.

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Seth Keshel, MBA, is a former Army Captain of Military Intelligence and Afghanistan veteran. His analytical method of election forecasting and analytics is known worldwide, and he has been commended by President Donald J. Trump for his work in the field.