Early voting alters system

This is not your father’s election season.
As one statewide candidate pointed out last week, the entire dynamic has changed.
And early voting is what has changed it.
Time was, local election campaigns kicked into full gear about the time of high school homecoming celebrations.
These days, by the time homecoming rolls around a good chunk of the electorate has already gone to the polls.
In Jay County this fall, several hundred voters cast their ballots before the dawn of Election Day.
Does that mean early voters were those who had firmly made up their minds in advance? Maybe. But it’s also possible that folks voted early because of convenience. They might still be a bit undecided, but it was easier to vote early so they did.
For candidates, for strategists and for the news media, this is a very different world. Or as candidate said last week, it’s an entirely new dynamic.
And it’s going to take awhile to sort it all out.
For our part, early voting meant that candidate profiles and interviews and questionnaires moved up much earlier on the calendar. For candidates and strategists, early voting made it harder to know when and how to spend campaign dollars.
How effective, for example, is a last minute advertising blitz in the era of early voting? How meaningful is the last minute endorsement by a popular public figure when lots of voters have already cast their ballots.
It’s a new world, and the only thing we’re certain of is this: If some politician or candidate tells you they’ve figured it all out, take those words with a grain of salt. —J.R.