Election Day has come

It’s been awhile since candidates running for president cared much about Arkansas. When Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were going at it four years ago, neither one paid much attention to the Natural State. For Clinton, there was no way she was going to win the state, and for Trump, there was no way to lose it. Ditto Trump and Joe Biden.

So the state really doesn’t know what it’s like to be a Pennsylvania or Florida, a state where the entire race could hinge on the outcome. No constant television advertisements. Not a lot of yard signs. No visitors to the door asking for your vote.

But it’s election day today, and it’s no less important here than it is anywhere else, well, unless you want to get into the discussion of the Electoral College, which we’ll save for another day.

Early voting ended on Monday, and goodness, it has been a spirited exercise this year all over. In Texas, more people voted early and by mail this year than voted in total in 2016. Yes, Texas is the ever purple state that teases Democrats but in the end, slips into the Republican fold. Will that change this year? Is Florida within the margin of error? Suddenly, we all become statisticians as we weigh the many unknowns.

But there is work to be done here. And even if you have not taken advantage of early voting or absentee voting, there’s the old school way of casting your ballot: showing up at your precinct on Election Day today. We know, that seems so quaint now, but it’s still a thing. You’ll need to grab your identification, and you should wear a mask and put some distance between yourself and the next person in line and wash your hands, but it’s still happening.

Should you go vote? We are always rooting for people to vote. We also are always rooting for people to be informed voters.

If you ask a journalism professor why newspapers are important, they would likely tell you that newspapers help people function better in a democratic society. Newspapers, and certainly other media as well, tell you things that you didn’t know, and those things inform the way you think about a candidate or politician or proposal, such as a tax or bond issue.

In many instances, the candidate or politician or the supporters of a bill or ballot initiative would rather you not know as much as the media tell you. But it’s our job, and we take it seriously because we know that a better-informed electorate is a better electorate. And because you are reading this, we are going to assume that you are, indeed, informed.

So get busy already. There are all kinds of state and local races just waiting for your yea or nay. The polls will be open for 12 hours today, closing at 7:30 p.m. Hopefully, you know where your precinct is located. If not, the county clerk can help.

We could go deep into the argument that this is your patriotic duty, your civic duty, that people have died for your right to vote and that to take it lightly is an insult to those who went before you, but you know all that. And you know that you’ll feel better about yourself if you do go vote.

Every election is important, and this one seems to have the most spark of any we can remember, and we are starting to remember quite a few. Join the fun. And then pop some popcorn and wait for the returns. Whether you like the results or not, the election process, we hope, will be well on its way to being over by the end of today, and if we are lucky, it will be over!