As many of you know, I live in Massachusetts. My 2024 mail-in ballot arrived on October 7. Mail-in ballots arrived and early in-person voting started even earlier in some states.
Every year, there are reports that some percentage of the eligible electorate did not vote. This always upsets me, just as it upsets me to hear people say that they don’t vote – they feel as though they are not important enough – their vote doesn’t count.
Friends, each and every citizen’s vote matters! Voting is the most precious right, privilege and duty of citizenship. Generations of our fellow Americans have fought and died to secure that right for you and me. And around the world, people are still fighting and dying for that right.
So, be it by mail, by in-person early voting at the city clerk’s office, or in person at the polls on Election Day (Nov. 5), cast your ballot as if our democracy depended upon it. For my friends, my fellow Americans, my brothers and sisters, it does! Our democracy, our country itself, is nothing more nor less than her citizens – you and me. And this year, she needs us more than ever. Donald Trump presents a clear and present danger to our democracy, our national security, to our civil rights – to the very foundation of our nation itself, the Constitution of the United States. It is imperative that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz not merely be elected, but be elected in a landslide.
Finally, remember the adage, “Use it or lose it.” Trump has stated as clearly as he possibly can that, if he is elected this year, we will never vote again.
Be a patriot. Vote!