Some of us still love Election Day voting

I’ve always loved voting on Election Day.

I like the tradition. I like waiting to make sure I have all the latest information.

Heck, I even like getting the sticker and proudly showing it off all afternoon.

I do not, however, like the idea of getting COVID-19.

Nor does anyone else. So, with more people opting for early and mail-in voting, I knew this year was going to be different. And it was.

When I marched into my precinct at 10 a.m. — with an N95 mask covering my face and two of my own pens in my pocket — I realized I could count the number of other voters on zero fingers.

It was just me and the friendly poll workers.

Still, I knew I couldn’t be the

one determined to cast my ballot in person on Election Day. So I set off on a quest Tuesday to find like-minded Americans willing to risk a deadly virus for the right to cast ballots the way God and Thomas Jefferson intended.

I headed first to Parramore where I met 85-year-old Thomas Butler, a retired tow truck dispatcher who’d just just cast his ballot at the John Jackson Neighborhood Center.

I wondered if it was the pageantry of Election Day that prompted Mr. Butler to wait until Tuesday to make his mark on American democracy.

“No,” he said. “I was just slow about it.”

Oh.

He went on to explain he just didn’t get around to early voting. So he went Tuesday.

OK, so that wasn’t quite the star-spangled-salute to Election Day voting I’d envisioned. But I was sure others felt the same way I did. So I zipped off toward Azalea Park.

While I waited in my car to pounce on unsuspecting voters, I checked my Facebook page where I’d asked readers how they planned on voting this year.

More than 300 people had responded. Certainly of them had to share my affinity for Election Day.

Yes, “Tuesday,” responded Erika. Suddenly I was filled with euphoria to find a kindred spirit … until I read the rest of Erika’s comment.

“Because as with everything in my life, I procrastinated. Otherwise, I would have early voted in person.”

I’d struck out so far. And to