I’m old-fashioned. I get four newspapers—the actual paper—delivered to my home every day. I occasionally send letters and pay bills with actual letters, with stamps.
And today, I will vote in a polling place in my neighborhood on Election Day.
We are told that I’m a dinosaur. But I’m glad to be one.
We’re told that social media and various new sites make newspapers obsolete. But those new sites make it easier to target to our biases, and keep us from serendipity and opinions we don’t care for. At home I get very different news and opinion from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, LA Times and Pasadena Star-News.
We’re told that electronic communications are better, faster, cheaper. But hackers have messed with that calculus.
And of course, we’re told that we should vote by mail and definitely vote early to bank those votes.
Actually, those do seem like good ideas for now. And they represent the future—California is moving away from local polling places to voting centers and mailing balloting. But they create all new formats for conflict and fighting over election rules—and we hardly need any more election conflict in this state or country. And people voting early vote with less than the full information. And unlike in other states and countries, you can’t vote a second time – and cancel your first vote – if you change your mind by Election Day.
I can see the attraction of early voting, given the horror show – hide the children! — that Californian and American politics have become. The sooner you can stop thinking about an election like this one, the better.
But I’m proud to be voting at the very end, on Election Day, having read all of the lying mailers and having heard all the last-minute smears. I’ll head over to the lobby of a local senior housing facility, and vote there, amongst the fastest-growing demographic in California: old people.
Plus, it gets me out of the house.