PLATFORM : Better Than a Booth

I’m not housebound and I wasn’t out of town or unable to get to my voting place--an unheated, untidy garage, where precinct workers gossip loudly. They may be well-meaning, but their chatter makes it difficult to punch out choices in the “privacy” of a canvas booth, particularly on a complicated ballot involving major offices, initiatives and bond issues.

I don’t want to spend billions of “my” tax dollars without due consideration. Even armed with a sample ballot, I sometimes need time to reconsider. And when this polling place fills up with people after work hours, it’s even more difficult to vote intelligently.

Absentee voting does cost more ($3.2 million this year, according to one estimate) and may delay the results in close races, but it ensures the democratic process. We’re always sobbing that about half of those eligible do not vote. This year, more than 100 million exercised this great privilege. Let’s not discourage this positive trend.