Hovland is a commissioner on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat, is New Mexico's secretary of state. Fitzpatrick, a Democrat, is clerk and recorder for Boulder County, Colo. Hatch, a Republican, is clerk and auditor for Weber County, Utah.
In a handful of days, Americans will decide who will be elected to lead our nation, states and communities by casting their ballots in the midterm election. Republicans, Democrats and independents are all eager to cast their ballots.
Research from ABC News and The Washington Post finds a whopping 66 percent of Americans consider voting in this year’s midterm election more important than voting in previous midterm cycles. But even with sky-high enthusiasm, we election administrators still see far too many people miss out on their opportunity to cast a ballot because of last-minute challenges on Election Day.
In the final hours of voting, Americans can face unanticipated barriers that may keep them from casting their ballot. Challenges include long lines, hectic schedules, illness, last-minute child care or work issues, traffic jams, changing election laws, voter disinformation, and myriad other obstacles. We’ve all run into these issues in our lives, and have seen even the best-laid plans fall apart when problems arise.
Fortunately there is an easy solution: Vote early.
When you vote early by mail or in person, nothing can stop you from having your say. When people vote ahead of Election Day, they have the convenience of finding a date and time that works for their schedule. The lines may be substantially shorter, which means you can get in, get out and get on with your day. And if you run into an issue like not having the right ID or showing up to the wrong polling place, you have plenty of time to correct the issue and cast your ballot.
For all of these reasons, we are celebrating Vote Early Day today. Launched in 2020, Vote Early Day is a nonpartisan holiday dedicated to ensuring all Americans have the tools and information they need to vote early. Built in the same model as other civic holidays like National Voter Registration Day, it culminates in a tentpole moment: a shared day to celebrate our democracy by helping others participate in it. On Vote Early Day, over 2,500 businesses, nonprofits, campus groups, civic organizations and election administrators host local celebrations in all 50 states, turning out their communities to vote early by the millions.
The success of this holiday is built on the idea that the work of empowering voters is a task no single group can or should do alone. Through a broad, diverse set of partners, Vote Early Day has the ability to meet people where they are with the information they need to vote in advance of Election Day. Yes, election administrators like us play a critical role in that work, but we also need businesses, educators, nonprofits, faith communities, student groups, media companies, athletes, celebrities and more. Each group has the unique ability to build a celebration that meets the needs of their communities, customers or constituents.
With politics seen as negative and toxically partisan by so many people we encounter, Vote Early Day events mark a fun and joyful opportunity to lower the barrier for entry into our democracy. Through the work of organizations celebrating the holiday, we not only amplify the benefits of voting early, but also empower people to take advantage of their options to make their voices heard.
As election administrators, we benefit from Vote Early Day too. With Americans voting across multiple days, as opposed to one single day in November, we have a more manageable number of ballots to process each day. It also provides us with a day to educate voters about how our democratic republic works and the steps election administrators take to keep our elections accessible, secure, and transparent.
Upholding the integrity of elections and making sure voting is secure and accessible for all eligible voters is paramount to our work. After all, getting people to vote early, in the words of former Wayne County, N.C., Board of Elections Director Rosemary Blizzard, “helps to make sure that everyone who is entitled to a ballot gets a ballot.”
With more than half of states seeing changes to their election laws since the 2020 election, Vote Early Day provides us an important opportunity to overcome confusion and delays at the polls. By celebrating Vote Early Day, we can share nonpartisan, up-to-date voter information that stops political disinformation in its tracks. When people vote early, they have the time and opportunities to navigate anything that comes their way.
In 2018, more than 39 million voters cast their ballot before Election Day. In 2020, that number rose to over 101 million. This fall, more than 220 million Americans are eligible to cast their ballots ahead of Election Day. We have a chance to make voting early the norm and not just a short-lived, pandemic-induced trend. Together, we can change the narrative about voting and make Election Day the last day to vote. So as this election draws to a close, we hope you will vote early, as your opportunity to join millions of people in casting your ballot ahead of Election Day. Why wait?
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
____
Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.