I don’t usually like to vote early. The practice is convenient, but it takes away some of the pageantry and unity of the process – waiting for The Day and standing in line with all of your neighbors, actively participating together in the governance of this great nation. It also makes it harder to vote more often than you should, and there’s always the possibility that you find out last minute that your candidate is hopelessly compromised by a foreign power. But I think the ritual of Election Day is, or at least was, an important one that helped bind us together culturally in a way that we are losing.

This year, though, I bowed to the convenience and my often unpredictable work schedule and cast my vote early. I dutifully brought my mail-in ballot with me, but the poll worker didn’t take it. Instead, she had me sign a certificate of missing ballot, told me I could keep the mailed version (I shredded it later), and then off I went. I can’t say that episode filled me with confidence that sending out hundreds of thousands of what are in essence duplicate ballots won’t tempt some people into shenanigans, and legitimately undermine faith that the outcome accurately reflects the sentiment of the voters. 

I know that my sense of Election Day tradition is something shared by more Republicans than Democrats, and so I could not help but to be simultaneously relieved and angry that just days before the election, Reno city officials announced that we were in the “red” COVID-wise and that everyone should stay home unless absolutely necessary. I’m not generally much given to conspiracy theories, but in these unsettled times I couldn’t help but to feel like that timing was just a little too convenient. Would it scare a few GOP Election Day voters into staying home on Tuesday?  In a world where people think the mere act of having a poll watcher present or asking people to actually register to vote in advance of an election is tantamount to voter suppression, surely this would qualify, no?  And in a world where a governor can unilaterally and on no notice shut down government buildings and essential municipal functions (think courthouses), a guy can be forgiven for being a little suspicious about it all. I’m glad my vote is cast, and that it’s not entrusted to heaven knows how many people in the USPS pipeline.

(If you need further justification for suspicion, consider this. President Trump’s enemies and adversaries have assured us – in spite of all evidence to the contrary in the real world – that he is akin to Adolf Hitler, poised to implement authoritarianism not seen since… Democratic governors declared themselves unending and limitless “emergency” powers which none of them show signs of giving up. Some of those anti-Trump folks even believe this nonsense. Let me tell you – if I actually believed Hitler reincarnate was about to take power, I would absolutely feel justified in rigging an election. And because I know some people really do think Trump is that later-day dictator, I’m equally confident some of them would feel justified in putting a thumb or two on the electoral scales. Behold the terrible and destructive irony of modern apocalyptic political rhetoric.)

***

Even if COVID justified the terrible panic and overreactions of the past eight months, this suggestion to shut ourselves down again just before Nevadans vote is still unacceptable. Freedom isn’t free, and its exercise comes with risks. Generations of Americans have imperiled – and often given – their lives on battlefields near and far to protect and defend our right to cast a ballot in every election. 

Having recently flown back from Florida where (a) I stood in a LOT of lines and (b) was jammed elbow to elbow with hundred of fellow airplane passengers, the idea of sowing panic about gathering people together so they can securely exercise their civic duty is as absurd as it is offensive. At best, it’s naked and pointless cowardice on the part of both public health and elected officials that may accidentally have the effect of discouraging people to vote, and at worst, it’s a deliberate attempt to suppress a block of voters known to favor casting their ballots on Election Day itself.

We continue to be berated from time to time by those holding public office for our “complacency” or our COVID “fatigue.”  But neither of these descriptors are correct. Instead, more and more Nevadans, Americans, and indeed, people all over the free world, are making their own individual cost-benefit decisions about their own lives, which is what freedom is all about. Increasingly, people do not feel cloistering themselves indefinitely, covering their face every waking moment, or not socializing with friends, family, and neighbors is worth the "benefit" of MAYBE not getting a bug they are statistically almost certain to recover from. It is not a surprise cases are and will continue rising in response to this behavior, but I, for one (and I am manifestly not alone) would rather guarantee that I get sick for a week (with the accompanying tiny but still real risk that the sickness could be much, much worse) than hide myself and my children under a blanket or behind a Zoom screen for what is now clear will surely be well over a year of our lives.

This is how a free society is supposed to function. And yet, we continue to suffer this absurd state of affairs where one man has simply announced for himself the power to arbitrability and without notice shut down businesses and schools (or so restrict their operation that they have no choice but to shutter) if we don’t use our freedom to choose “correctly” for the “greater good.”  This is a far greater problem than COVID ever has been — indeed, it is an existential threat to our entire culture, economy, and liberties. It's long past time we stop just accepting this sort of unprecedented exercise of power anywhere in the United States of America, and push back hard against it. (For the millionth time I am baffled that the same people who think Trump is the next Hitler are also angry with the President for not asserting and wielding this type of emergency power nation-wide, as our supposed betters in Europe have so ineffectually done.)

And for those of you reading this who scoff, and think, “But we HAVE to have mask mandates and prevent people from doing business together and empower experts to tell us what to do, because without them, people can’t be trusted to fall into line for the greater good!”  This is just another way of saying that the masses aren’t capable of governing themselves. And if you believe that, you certainly can’t be in favor of democracy of any flavor, which is why I don’t trust anyone overfond of government mandates. The idea that people need to be ruled by their betters is an ancient one indeed, and as persistent and even seductive as it is inevitably destructive. 

When any of us cast a vote, it is not to chose our rulers. Rather, it is a hiring decision for administrators to serve our interests, and a temporary and conditional one at that. It is not an expression of supplication, it is an assertion of our individual liberty and sovereignty. At times in our history that too many of us have taken for granted, the vote was a right earned in blood and sacrifice, and exercised under threat. 

Now, the enemy to our franchise is not poll taxes or firehoses or former colonial masters from across the sea. It is instead our own mass hysteria over an illness (something humans have long endured with far stiffer spines) that turns unwarranted fear and paranoia into a virtue, and unleashes armies of snitches and virtue signalers to heckle or even fine us into submission. Too many of us are getting used to trading liberty for safety, which of course almost always results in the loss of both.

Enough is enough.

If you haven’t voted yet, go do so on Tuesday. Like everything else we do in life, it is a risk — but a worthy and necessary one. Vote for people who will respect you as the free citizen you are, instead of a child who must be scolded periodically (which is how our governor and his enablers view you). Don’t forget that local races will impact your life far more than federal ones, and that with the almost sole exception of legislative races, partisan identity matters far less than basic competency.

Vote to take back authority over your right to live your own life, before it’s too late.

Orrin Johnson has been writing and commenting on Nevada and national politics since 2007. He started with an independent blog, First Principles, and was a regular columnist for the Reno Gazette-Journal from 2015-2016. By day, he is a criminal defense attorney in Reno. Follow him on Twitter @orrinjohnson, or contact him at [email protected].