I don’t know about you, but it’s been a big week for me. First of all, I voted early for only the second time in my life. The line was about 45 minutes long from start to ballot, and I was told by one of the volunteers that was actually fast. People had been coming in droves all week.

Second, whether you were aware of it or not, this past Monday was National Chocolate Day. Now, in my house, we tend to celebrate that particular occasion every day of every year. We really don’t need a designated time to enjoy the cacao bean in all its many forms. But apparently one day Congress must have finally taken care of all the nation’s problems and decided to make an official proclamation about chocolate. (Do you suppose there was any objection to that? I mean, surely there wasn’t a huge vanilla-is-best contingent that vociferously denounced Hershey and M&Ms and Milky Ways. Even the crazies on the left AND the right could no doubt agree on honoring all chocolate treats.)

As always, voting filled me again with pride. It’s still a thrill to mark a ballot without anyone else seeing my choices nor coercing me into making a selection I don’t want to make. And thank goodness we live in a country that offers us choices in candidates. I can vividly remember years ago hearing the results of elections in the USSR (or even more recently, in plain old Russia). Often those elected there ran unopposed. (They still only garnered somewhere around 98% of the vote. The 2% who bucked the system with write-ins probably got an up-close-and-personal look at the inside of a Gulag for several years.)

It was very freeing to vote early this year. And here’s why: Now that my ballot has been signed, sealed, and delivered, I feel absolutely no obligation whatsoever to pay attention to any TV commercial, radio spot, news channel, campaign flyer, billboard, or anything remotely associated with a candidate or political action committee or whatever propaganda emanates from either the Republican or Democratic National Committees. Between now and next Tuesday, I can just smile, eat a Snickers, and scroll on my phone past the latest insult or report on a stupid slip-of-the-tongue. I can simply hit the mute button for all but the important stories (you know, baseball, football, basketball – those kinds of really key pieces of news). Oh, and I AM still interested in making sure Israel and Iran haven’t blown each other off the map yet.

I started reading a new spy novel while standing in line to vote, and because I’m not wasting time on political ad-watching or reading, now I can actually finish it soon. However, even though I’m enjoying my new-found freedom from inundation, I do have to admit I’m not a huge fan of really early voting, like a month ahead of time. I’m certainly in agreement that having everyone get to the polls on a single Tuesday in November is not the best idea. Too many things can happen to make voters miss their opportunity when pigeon-holed to one day. People can’t get off work, they may be unavoidably out of town, their kids (or they) get sick. In many places, the weather often isn’t ideal. Snow, ice, and even rain can keep voters away from the polls.

But having voting going on for a few weeks or more doesn’t seem quite right either. While it’s true that most of America had probably already made up its mind which candidate to support in this particular presidential election long before September, the rule of thumb for politics in general is that no one is really paying attention until Labor Day or beyond. All those other offices on the ballot, from governor down to the school board, often have more of an effect on our day-to-day living than a president would. And we probably know the least about those candidates. I think we all need time to gather the most information we can to make an informed decision about everyone on the ballot. All things considered, maybe nine or ten days is enough time to do early voting (two weekends and the week in between).

Hopefully all reading this have exercised your right or will on Tuesday. But don’t count on me being at a polling place that day. I’ll be sitting at home still eating bon-bons left over from either National Chocolate Day or Halloween. Hopefully there will be enough for the evening too. It could be a long night.

©MMXXIV. William J. Lewis, III – Freelance Writer