How Many Votes Were Wasted in NY-23?

There's some concern that a fair number of Republicans in NY-23 may have thrown their votes away thanks to early or absentee voting when they cast ballots for Dede Scozzafava. She was, after all, the Republican nominee supported by the likes of Newt Gingrich and the GOP leadership. Voting early means they weren't able to make their decision based on all of the facts, like the fact that Scozzafava withdrew from the race and endorsed the Democrat three days before the election. I wonder how many people would like to have those votes back today?

A lot of jurisdictions now allow voting as much as two weeks or more before an election. It's done as a convenience and to ensure as many people as possible can cast their ballot. However, as in the case of NY-23 it comes with risks. What if there's a last minute revelation that shows the person you voted for to be unfit for the office? You may help elect a person unworthy of the job and someone you'd never vote for if you had complete information.

Frankly, we've made voting too easy. We've tried to make it so sacrifice-free for voters that we've cheapened the whole process. Personally, I'd like to see voting restricted to one or two days. You'll still have to deal with absentees, which necessarily have to come in early, but for most of us there's really no reason why we couldn't make our way to our local polling place and do our duty as a citizen of a free country.

It would be better to have only those voters who are committed to the process casting ballots. They're the ones who care enough to learn the issues. It would also make vote fraud much more difficult. Early voting just gives professional fraud operations like ACORN more time to manipulate the system and steal elections.