I want Donald Trump to win the 2024 presidential election. I have disagreements with the former president on policy, rhetoric, and priorities, but he’s a far better option for conservatives than Kamala Harris.
There’s no clear-cut frontrunner, but Republican voters can help Trump’s chances if they embrace early voting. Sometimes, early voting is the only way busy people will cast a vote in an election. Republican voters include elderly Americans, parents, and people who work long hours (like small business owners). They may have difficulty getting to the polls on Election day or have no time for it. People even die before elections, but if you vote early, your vote still counts in some states.
Forget the critiques of early voting. It has problems, including candidates dropping out of crowded primaries and new information about candidates before Election Day, but early voting is here to stay. Republicans must embrace it if they want to receive every possible vote. Democrats do, so Republicans can’t ignoring it. Telling people to not vote early or not vote by mail is an unfortunate form of voter suppression. It decreases a candidate's vote total with no discernible benefit. Voter fraud occurs, so one can understand why some may dislike anything other than traditional voting methods, but those instances go in both directions and happen too infrequently to impact the outcome of a presidential election. Tens of millions of Americans will refuse to accept the 2024 presidential election outcome, no matter who wins.
The 2016 and 2020 presidential elections were close, with fewer than 100,000 voters in a few states deciding the outcome. No one blew anyone out, and we can fairly say Hillary Clinton lost a winnable race in 2016, as Trump did in 2020. The Clinton campaign’s overconfidence was its downfall, with Democratic nominee failing to campaign in Wisconsin, a crucial swing state. Trump, meanwhile, attacked mail-in voting and never accepted early voting during his 2020 bid, despite the coronavirus pandemic making those methods widespread.
During his 2024 campaign, however, Trump favors mail-in voting. "Early Voting in Pennsylvania. GO VOTE. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!! DJT," Trump posted on X on September 17, 2024.
The polls don't tell us who will win Pennsylvania this year. Kamala Harris was up by 0.6 points in the FiveThirtyEight polling average as of October 10, well within the margin of error of every poll used in that calculation. That merely tells us that either Trump or Harris can win Pennsylvania. The same is true of states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, Georgia, and North Carolina. It’s a winnable campaign for Trump and Harris, despite their immense flaws. That matters because, with small margins like those, early voting can make a difference. Trump lost Wisconsin, a state with nearly six million people, by about 20,000 votes in 2020. With the right voter turnout strategy that uses every possible voting method, why couldn’t a campaign get 20,000 more votes in one state?
I vote early for a few reasons. I work in political news, so election days are busy. I typically vote on the first day of early voting right when the polls open, meaning I’m the first one there, and there’s no line. That means I’ll vote for president this upcoming weekend after carefully considering some of the down-ballot races and the impact of legalizing psychedelic drugs. I’m sympathetic to the idea, as I believe we need a war on opioids (not all drugs), but I must research its potential impact. If it means less crime and fewer drug overdose deaths, okay. If not, then no.
I also look forward to voting. Many people lack this enthusiasm, especially if they live in a blue state and mostly vote for Republicans in general elections. I like expressing dissatisfaction with the status quo and voting on referenda that sometimes transcend typical Democratic-Republican politics. My early vote in Massachusetts does nothing for Trump, but conservatives in swing states locking in their vote early in case anything comes up could make the difference.