The Only Poll That Matters

My office is on the third floor of county office building. The Board of Elections is the basement.

Every day for the past three weeks or so, I walk past the room where early ballots are being cast. With each passing day, the lines have gotten longer. Tonight, people were standing in line outside in the parking lot.

These are not ACORN bus transportees. The cars in the parking lot have Delaware County tags.

Some people, like George Will, think it’s just awful that people should be allowed to vote early. Voting on Election Day is a tradition, and the inconvenience of rising early, or standing in line, demonstrates a level of commitment and civil virtue.

Well, there are some good arguments against early voting, including the possibility of voter fraud.

But most of the people I saw today will stand in line and suffer more inconvenience than if they had stood in line at the polls tomorrow. They are not lacking in civic virtue, only willing to exercise the franchise if it is microwaved and served to them on a platter.

My party may not fare as well as I hope when the ballots are tallied tomorrow – we’ll see, for the only poll that counts is still in the field. But I remember the stirring of my heart when I saw the ink-stained fingers of Iraqis voting in the first election of their lives. If you believe in democracy and representative government, the sight of voters voting here has to make you believe in America.