COVID-19 has been a horrific blight in obvious ways – the assault on our collective health, welfare and finances – but also in small ways that chip away at our souls.
It’s stolen a myriad of activities I appreciated more than I ever realized, and I’m betting you’re in the same boat.
The opportunity to congregate with family and friends just like we used to, without thinking about potentially deadly consequences, is likely at the top of everyone’s list.
But there’s so much more.
I haven’t harmonized with my church choir or my women’s barbershop chorus since March. Solitary singing sucks. (Thankfully, alliteration is still safe from the virus.)
Indoor church services remain inadvisable for people in my age group, although Zoom and outdoor services can get the job done. Regardless, I find myself yearning for a pew, a hymnal and some Sunday morning hugs.
Then there’s work. At first, I was a fan of remote labor – the no-makeup, wear-whatever-I-want protocol that’s acceptable in my home office. But I’m over it. Mixing with co-workers in professional garb and in a professional environment – I want that again (on a semi-retired basis, at least).
And, finally, there’s grocery shopping. I’ve always detested that chore, so for weeks and weeks I enjoyed the new normal of pre-ordered food delivered to my doorstep or my hatchback. But now that it’s been months and months, I long to go back into stores, touching the merchandise and smiling at people I encounter, knowing they can actually see my lips.
With all the bad, however, I have to admit there’s one thing COVID-19 brought about I wouldn’t mind carrying forward into its afterlife – voting from my home.
My husband and I were two among 32,719 Jefferson County residents who voted prior to Election Day on Nov. 3.
In fact, we filled out our ballots at our kitchen table with weeks to spare, then dropped them off at the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office in Hillsboro.
Leader Editorial Page editor Steve Taylor’s Page 1 election recap (published Nov. 12) revealed that approximately one in five county voters chose to do their civic duty early – some by mail, some by dropping off completed ballots as we did, some in person at three early-voting sites, and some from their vehicles in curbside voting.
The early voting set a record, obliterating the old record of 11,319 early voters in the 2016 presidential election.
Nov. 3’s tally of 117,218 county votes was the highest number ever cast in the county, although increased voter registration didn’t quite allow a new percentage record for turnout.
But given that 2020’s election came in the midst of a pandemic, the turnout was stunning. I can picture George Washington’s jaw dropping to the floor (Careful, Martha, don’t trip over it! Wooden teeth have splinters.)
The enthusiastic participation this time around wouldn’t have happened without Missouri legislators and our county election officials giving us special options this year, and – in the case of our local leaders – making sure we were informed about the new rules of engagement.
Jefferson County Clerk Ken Waller even provided a means to vote for people with active COVID-19 or under quarantine. Over 18 hours on Nov. 2-3, Waller, who has not had COVID, and a poll worker who had recovered from the virus, staffed a segregated table at the clerk’s office in Hillsboro for the afflicted to cast ballots. Five hundred did so.
No way our officials were going to let COVID-19 steal our opportunity to vote.
Steve’s story made me proud of our vote-collectors and of each of us who participated, thereby demonstrating our faith in democracy.
Waller, a Republican, said he will lobby legislators to adopt permanently a relaxation of absentee voting rules, even when COVID-19 is in the rear-view mirror. I hope he succeeds.
“I think it would boost voter turnout by 10 percent to 20 percent in all elections, not just presidential ones,” Waller said. “When you’re in the job, you see how effective it is (more ways to vote).”
What happened here was a microcosm of what took place around America. New rules were adopted to allow safe voting, and people across the political spectrum followed them, smashing vote-total records.
In Jefferson County, Donald Trump captured two-thirds of the vote, doing even better in 2020 than he did in 2016. He did that well in lots of places around the country, running up the score even higher in many locales, mostly in the middle of America.
No one appears to be contesting those lopsided totals. And they shouldn’t.
Neither should they contend, without solid evidence, that cheating occurred in places where Joe Biden won. Republicans were in charge of the process in many of those locations, and they are rightfully standing up for their own integrity and their careful voting procedures.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, acting as election watchdog, announced the 2020 election “the most secure in American history.”
It’s always hard to lose, especially when there’s a lot at stake, and the honest grief of millions of Trump supporters – including the ones who live here – is understandable.
But Biden is the winner this time, with decisive victories in both the popular vote and the Electoral College.
If there were actual evidence otherwise, the legal actions being pursued on Trump’s behalf would prevail.
Biden’s narrow margins in the states that put him over the top are reflections of the same narrow margins that gave Trump the prize in 2016.
The virus has robbed us of many things in 2020, but it didn’t steal our election.
You can count on it.
