The coronavirus pandemic has already changed how millions of Americans will vote this year, and a new poll makes clear it's also going to change when they vote.
Six in 10 Americans want to cast their ballots before Election Day, either in-person at an early voting location or after getting to a drop box or the post office to return an absentee envelope, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll released Thursday. Four years ago, four in 10 voters cast their ballots ahead of time.
The anticipated surge way-ahead-of-deadline voting — which started a week ago, when the first absentee ballots were mailed in North Carolina, with the first in-person ballots set to get cast a week from now in Minnesota — makes the civic-minded proud but also makes election administrators anxious.
Many states don't allow the processing of envelopes or the tabulating of early votes until much closer to the election, so a rush of voting in September and October won't necessarily translate to quick and complete returns the night of Nov. 3.
Officials in many states, including most of the presidential battlegrounds, also say they do not have the people or equipment ready to process the deluge of paper. And the infusion of cash they were counting on from Congress to pay for election preparations now seems to be an all but evaporated hope, after a partisan Senate vote on Thursday almost entirely eliminated prospects for another round of coronavirus economic stimulus and federal aid before the election in 53 days.
Most people in the survey indicated they would prefer to cast their ballot in person at a polling place (49 percent), rather than it by mail (33 percent) or turn it in it at an elections office, polling place or drop box (16 percent). Still, absentee voting interest this year is nearly double what it was four years ago, according to the Election Assistance Commission.
Pennsylvania and New Hampshire are the only battlegrounds on the roster of 10 states that do not have the option to vote in person before Election Day this year. The periods for early voting range from four to 45 days in the rest of the country.
Even though voting by mail will be more widely used this fall, only 28 percent are "very confident" their ballot will be counted accurately that way, the poll found. Confidence levels are much higher (62 percent) when asked about going to the polls on Election Day.
A report published Thursday by Politico found that Democrats are far outnumbering Republicans in absentee ballot requests in several battlegrounds, including North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Florida. While votes for Joe Biden are likely to be cast (if not tabulated) before Nov. 3, President Trump will be hoping for smooth operations on Election Day when a majority of his base is likely to head to the polls.
The poll also found a stark contrast in views on election integrity. A lopsided majority of Black voters (71 percent) believe it is easier for white citizens to vote, compared to just one-third of white people who say the same.
The disparity is less severe between Latino and white voters. Just over two-fifths of Hispanics say it's easier for white people to access the ballot box, whereas 37 percent of white voters agree with that sentiment.
The poll, which has a 3 percentage point margin of error, was of 1,929 people nationwide Aug. 24-31.
Old engraved illustration of Ulysses defying the Cyclops.
Odysseus Reimagined: Nolan’s Epic Explores What Makes a True Hero
Who is a hero? More importantly: what is a hero? What attributes are universally admired, inspiring glorious stories, ballads and songs, memorials and movies, all chronicling the hero’s bold adventures?
The Odyssey, a new release written and directed by Christopher Nolan, attempts to answer that question. Based on the ancient tales The Iliad and The Odyssey, written by Homer around 800 BC, the film stars Matt Damon as Odysseus and Anne Hathaway as Penelope, his loyal wife.
Historians have puzzled over the “Homeric question,” that is, who was Homer? We know very little about him, not even when or where he was born; seven Greek cities lay claim to him as their native son. Yet, he is considered the “godfather” of national Greek culture, and his stories are among the earliest masterpieces of literature.
Homer is sometimes romanticized as a blind poet who wandered from town to town reciting his stories. But he, who could express so poignantly the tribulations of Odysseus, was not blind to human nature. He keenly wrote of the attributes as well as the paltriness in his characters and the flaws of his great hero, Odysseus.
The Iliad is the story of the final years of the Trojan War, sparked when Helen, the beautiful wife of Sparta’s King Menelaus, was kidnapped by Paris of Troy. Because the kings had initiated a pact to defend one another, Odysseus was drawn into the fray.
After spending ten years fighting the Trojan War and finally achieving victory, The Odyssey tells of Odysseus’s struggle to return to his kingdom, Ithaca. On his way home, he encounters many dangers and delays. He is pursued by the sea-god Poseidon, must surmount Circe’s spell, and overcome the seductive charms of the enchantress Calypso, and his journey takes him another ten years.
Odysseus’s desires and struggles are universal: his longing for home, yearning for an end to his troubles, for rest after a long and difficult journey. His difficulties reflect the immemorial questions of what it means to be loyal, to belong, what it means “to be” at all. Despite his hubris, which manifests in his propensity to court catastrophe without regard for consequences, Odysseus is an authentic hero, noble and admirable, brave and dedicated.
According to the Greek ideal, a true hero must possess physical excellence and moral virtue. He must, as well, embrace his civic duty. Achieving such status requires “paideia,” a good education; “sophrosyne,” moderation in maintaining physical and emotional balance; and “arete,” an allegiance to the state.
Fictional or real, heroes’ deeds resonate through the centuries and shine a light on what is best in humanity, what matters, what will live on despite our mortality.
Is our digital age really so different from Homer’s Bronze Age? Physical beauty is still adulated, as it was then with Helen of Troy, “the face that launched a thousand ships.” (Marlowe) Power is still king, and wealth is still power.
The years of the Trojan War were harsh and violent. But were they more brutal than the times we live in? Although millenniums have passed and we now have different battlefields, Palestine, Ukraine, Iran, etc., the ravages and the wages of war remain the same: death and suffering. Humanity’s currency is the same, and so, too, is our quest for heroes.
Social scientists claim that after three generations most people are forgotten by even their direct progeny, and after four, remembered only by historical records. So, what then does last? What makes a difference? What is truly beautiful and worthwhile in life?
The universal themes embodied and emboldened by our heroes throughout the ages, the faithfulness of their hearts and the courage of their deeds, these last.
The essential qualities of a hero are manifested in Homer’s Odysseus. Steadfast integrity: “Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.” His deep compassion: “Yet, taught by time, my heart has learned to glow for others’ good, and to melt at others’ woes.” (Both quotes from The Odyssey.)
Nolan’s movie may have created a more virtuous hero than Homer’s works, but the core of the nearly 3,000-year-old-story is intact and as crucially relevant today as it was then. It is the stuff of life: trauma, survival, relationships with others, finding oneself, deciding what is right, choosing a path forward, sometimes, ultimately leading to the honing of a hero.
Just as Odysseus braved storms, temptations, and trials in search of home, we too face a modern sea of civic turbulence, polarization, mistrust, and the fraying of our shared story.
As we live, we too will write our defining stories. How then might we become modern heroes?
By instigating the third Greek ideal of “arete”; embracing our civic duty. By becoming citizens who are open to reflection and debate, who are willing to act with purpose for the betterment of our nation.
In this journey, the work of renewing our democracy can be its own Odyssey, a voyage calling for integrity, courage, and steadfast commitment. Not to return home as Odysseus so desired, but to preserve our home, for the grand and worthwhile purpose of working toward an ever-better future for our country.
With others, we can shape the next chapter of our nation’s collective story.
Amy Lockard is an Iowa resident who regularly contributes to regional newspapers and periodicals. She is working on the second of a four-book fictional series based on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice."