Why I didn't vote early

I’ve never voted early and I probably never will unless I would be out of town, but that’s highly unlikely.

All over Facebook people are sporting their stickers that they have indeed voted. My guess is that they're confident their candidate will be scandal free for the remainder of time till election day (or they don’t care what their chosen one is accused of). In this time of instant news, whether you turn on your phone, computer or television, that’s highly unlikely.

The real reason I’m not voting early is I don’t trust the system. The voter fraud concerns me. I remember one year when my neighbor went to vote and wasn’t allowed to. At first she thought it was a minor glitch, but the people behind the tables were adamant that she couldn’t vote. Showing her ID apparently wasn’t good enough. It was getting increasingly suspicious.

My neighbor became livid and demanded that someone be called to the polling place. (This was “back in the day” when there were no cell phones). No one was about to do that either it appeared. I don’t remember who finally put a call in, but the proper authorities showed up. After the authorities spoke with my neighbor (and several hours had gone by), she was allowed to cast her vote.

On returning home, she stopped by my house to tell me what happened. How can a life-long resident of the neighborhood not be allowed to vote? In our conversation she speculated on the reasons why, but never really came up with a reason that made any sense, at least to either of us.

That incident has haunted me every time I go to vote. My husband and I still talk about it sometimes as we walk to the polling place together.

So I won’t be voting early. But I will vote and I’ve prepared for that.