I voted on October 24th, the first day of early voting in the state. It was a bit strange to drive up to the Cambridge Water Department, a new polling venue. I’d never before been inside the Water Department. Poll workers described a heavy turnout—they told me one voter a minute. Across the state, more than 500,000 voters cast early ballots in those first few days.
I decided to vote early even though I knew I’d have to give up my familiar voting routine. I worried I would feel disconnected at a nontraditional polling place, and without my neighborhood tribe. But it turns out these early voting strangers and I were bonded—not by zone, but by our grim determination to zoom past the final days of this campaign season. A campaign season "Last Week Tonight" Host John Oliver likened to “lice on rats on a horse corpse on fire.” We are mad about it but not totally turned off by the process. There’s evidence voter engagement is higher than ever. For example, a record 4.5 million Bay Staters are now registered to vote.
But the two-year-long slugfest has taken a toll—many of us have been weighted down by heavy stones of disgust and disappointment. Several months ago the Pew Research Center found that six out of 10 Americans were already suffering from election exhaustion. Just a reminder—that was before the Washington Post’s David Farenthold reported the Trump Foundation paid for a life sized painting of Donald Trump, before Wikileaks exposed the personal emails of Hillary Clinton’s top political manager John Podesta, before the Access Hollywood tape of Donald Trump bragging to Billy Bush about grabbing women’s private parts, and before FBI Director James Comey expanded his Clinton email investigation to review emails from a computer owned by disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner. Whew! I’m depressed just recounting these low lights of the campaign. Any wonder why we are all sick to death of thinking about, worrying about, and fighting about this election? The only October surprise for me was that we voters didn’t all run screaming into the night.
Psychologist Mary Alvord told USA Today recently that “there is a lot of tiptoeing around” by people worn out by trying to avoid political discussion blowups. ABC News and the SSRS survey research firm found that 40 percent of Americans have experienced tension with friends and family talking about the 2016 presidential election. Which is why 4 percent of those surveyed said they didn’t talk about the election at all.
Resourceful voters have also engaged social media to protect themselves. USA Today reported two really popular Facebook filters: “Remove All Politics,” and “I Haven’t Got Time for the Paign”—short for CAMpaign. Since it’s my job to stay fully engaged in the political discourse, I’ve only allowed myself brief periods of checking out. That’s when I activate my low-tech defense tool—the mute button on my remote.
Elections expert Michael McDonald couldn’t have been more right last week when he told NPR voters couldn’t wait “to cast a ballot and move on with their lives.” Of course it will be all over but the shouting when the polls close tomorrow on Election Day. More than 25 million Americans like me have already voted, but the many more millions who haven’t will have the last word in this bitter brutal election. It can’t come soon enough.
