Monday, October 21, was the first day of early voting in Dallas County.  The sun was shining and the birds were singing as I got ready to go to the polls with husband (and HUCKABEE co-writer) Pat Reeder.  I was happy, happy, happy to finally be casting my vote for former (and, I hope, future) President Trump and everyone else on the ballot who did NOT have a “D” next to his or her name, as I absolutely cannot support any candidate still professing loyalty to the Democrat Party, given its dishonest leadership and horrible agenda.

Then I turned on the radio, earlier than usual, about 10:15, to WBAP-AM and heard a host I don’t usually hear, Casey Bartholomew.  It sure took me out of my lovely mood.  In fact, I’m still spitting nails over what he was telling his audience.

This was the second hour of his two-hour show, so admittedly, I didn’t hear everything that preceded the discussion in progress.  But Bartholomew was ardently defending Election Day as THE ONLY day to vote.  He apparently doesn’t care that Republicans are being asked --- begged --- to “bank” their votes in case something happens between now and Election Day.  He’s always voted on the actual Election Day and, by gum, he’s going to do the same thing this year.  In fact, he aggressively criticized those who vote early as people who care more about their own convenience than the seriousness of casting their vote.  He was telling his listeners that they should all wait and vote on Election Day as he does.

Now, I grew up thinking of Election Day as sacred and casting my vote as a kind of sacrament.  This year marks the first time, in fact, that I’ve voted early.  But this situation is different.  This time, it’s SO IMPORTANT for my vote to count that I just had to make sure it got in.  (Never mind the story about some voting machines in Dallas County mis-tabulating ballots in their recent trial run but being certified for use anyway.  That’s pretty horrifying, but there’s nothing I can do about it.  At least if someone else’s “R” vote isn’t counted correctly, my “R” vote can help bridge the gap.)

So many things could happen on Election Day:  What if the electrical grid is tampered with or otherwise fails?  What if some locations run out of ballots?  What if some of the machines go down or are found to have problems?  What if there’s some “black swan” event we haven’t even thought of, designed to interfere with the process? What if there’s a tornado (We are in Texas, after all)?

And then there’s me:  What if I get really sick and have to stay home?  What if there’s a family emergency I have to take care of?  What if I fall off the roof cleaning leaves out of the gutters and have to go to the hospital?  What if my house burns down and everything is lost, including my ID?  What if I’m in a wreck on the way to the polls?  (Not that I wouldn’t crawl the rest of the way if I could.)     

What if I DIE?

Since I’m not a Democrat, I know I can’t vote if I’m dead, so the best strategy is to vote as soon as possible, while I definitely have a pulse.  Now that I’ve voted, that vote will be my legacy if I happen to get hit by a bus on, say, November 4. Pat and I will be the first people ever to vote Republican after we’re dead.

I never used to have this sense of urgency about voting.  If the election system is ever reformed the way I want it --- with in-person voting on Election Day and maybe just a few days before so crowds are manageable, no electronic machines (which ARE proven hackable), and absentee ballots by request for specific reasons only --- I might go back to voting as I always did.  But that’s the “perfect world” that doesn’t presently exist.

I tried to give Casey Bartholomew the benefit of the doubt.  Was he perhaps using reverse psychology to get his audience fired up about voting early?  Nothing in his delivery suggested this at all.  Was he trying to be deliberately provocative?  If so, this subject is too important to be playing games with the audience.  No, I think he was quite serious.  Could be wrong, but I’m pretty good with nuance, and if his nuance was lost on me, it was probably lost on most people.

This host did his listeners a huge disservice.  I hope they stayed on to listen to Dan Bongino, who gave them the antidote and maybe even helped nudge them to the polls on that first day of voting.  He’s made it clear, as we have, that it’s important to get our votes “banked,” just in case anything interferes on Election Day.  I was happy to see a long line at my polling place, and the vibe there was really good.

Have you voted yet?

(P.S. from Pat: I couldn’t tell who most of the people there were voting for, but I’m pretty sure that the guy in line behind me in the T-shirt with an AR-15 rifle and the slogan, “As long as we’re redefining things, this is a cordless hole-puncher” was voting for Trump.)