Liberal advocates of early voting just got a tough lesson that the practice can end up biting them on the behind.
That’s one fallout from Montana Republican Greg Gianforte’s victory in a special House election Thursday — just one day after he had been charged with physically assaulting a reporter.
Two newspapers that had endorsed Gianforte withdrew their support at the last minute, but he still scored a comfortable 6-point win over Democrat Rob Quist.
How? Some cite the fact that Montana has one of the most expansive uses of early and absentee voting.
By Election Day, fully 37 percent of registered voters had already sent in their ballots under early voting that began a month earlier. And under state law, they couldn’t change their vote.
Since many people never bother to vote, it’s likely that half the Montana ballots were cast before the Gianforte incident.
Now, it may have made no difference in the end. But many voters surely had second and third thoughts.
Yet early voting has always been a key “reform” pushed by Democrats (including Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman), along with no-excuse absentee ballots and other changes.
We’ve long opposed early voting, precisely for this reason. Voters should go to the polls with the same set of facts before them. Absentee ballots should be reserved for the military, those too ill to go to the polls and similar unusual cases.
Besides, communal voting — standing in line with your neighbors to exercise your role in a democracy — promotes the notion of people as citizens, not as disconnected consumers in a political marketplace.