Democracy in Peril

By Steve Sebelius

SHOP TILL YOU VOTE: It's a great country, isn't it, where you can pick up tomatoes, toothpaste and Tums while doing your civic duty?

At least, that's what you could think when walking into the Vons supermarket at Rampart Drive and Charleston Boulevard, which is one of many early voting sites around the city. (Others are in malls, which means you can hit Macy's, Dillard's, See's Candies and the food court and vote on your way out to the car.)

For some, this is a perversion of democracy rather than the practice of it. My friend and colleague, Jon Ralston, rails against early voting as a sop to convenience and an indulgence of ignorance.

And he makes some good points: People who vote early deprive themselves of information that can be gleaned in the critical closing days of a campaign. Often, the best of the negative campaigning surfaces only in the week before voters actually vote, when their attention is ripped away from the nipping, tucking, surviving, marrying world of reality television.

And by making voting easy, Ralston argues, we send the wrong message: that democracy should be no harder than ordering a quarter-pounder with cheese at the drive-through window. Certainly a right won by the blood of patriots should involve more sacrifice than the agonizing decision of whether we want fries with that?

Good points, certainly. But not good enough that we should do away with early voting.

First, early voting is a sop to convenience, both for the Election Department and for voters. There's no having to circle Election Day on the calendar, no figuring out where your polling place is located (they change occasionally) and no worrying about a line on Election Day. (To be perfectly honest, however, I've yet to encounter a line, and I am a strict Election Day-only voter myself.)

But just because it's convenient doesn't mean it's bad. It's convenient to register to vote at the Department of Motor Vehicles when getting your license plates, and that's a good thing.

Is there a knowledge gap for early voters? Perhaps. Certainly, they will not be privy to last-minute revelations that might change some voters' minds about a candidate.

Then again, an early voter can't always be said to be an ignorant voter. This year, the Review-Journal published its election guide before primary voting began, enabling readers to learn about the most far-flung court races, and to cast informed votes. (And it should be said that getting informed is an indispensable part of exercising the voting franchise.)

If a person takes the time to read the paper and get informed, what does it matter if he casts his vote two weeks before Election Day? Isn't combating voter apathy worth opening the doors to whomever wishes to exercise the franchise, even before Election Day?

As I said, I vote on Election Day (and don't open presents until Dec. 25, or tip the champagne until the stroke of midnight Dec. 31). It's tradition. But I won't condemn those who do things differently.