Suburbs

The end is near, folks. All the bickering, finger-pointing, accusations, questionable tactics and misguided claims are within days of disappearing. Your mailbox will not be crammed full of information cards and candidates’ platforms won’t invade your social media feed.

Election Day is Tuesday. Early voting ended in Shelby County on Thursday. By Wednesday, all the tactics for your vote should cease.

None of this grousing should be interpreted as discouraging people from casting their ballots. Quite the contrary. If you didn’t vote early, make sure you clear some time to make it to your precinct Tuesday. Maybe you even know an end-run to avoid the campaign workers pushing for your last-minute vote.

At The Daily Memphian, we have tried to provide information on the candidates, what they stand for, what they consider the big issues, the differences between the hopefuls. We have even provided profiles of those running unopposed. Of course, we don’t count those stories as part of the typhoon of political pushing from the candidates.

But you have to admit, being bombarded by the various ways to seek your vote becomes annoying. I mean, I even got text messages from Donald Trump and Ted Cruz and people asking for me to donate to the Kamala Harris campaign. And I didn’t even think they had my cell phone number. Even as I was writing this, I got a text from state Sen. Brent Taylor seeking my support for Marsha Blackburn. I don’t believe Gloria Johnson, who is trying to unseat Blackburn, has called yet.

Andy Ellis texted me in the Germantown school board race. No matter where I be, they seem to find me.

I get it. Every vote counts. And again, not only go to the polls but if you are in the various cities, including the suburbs, don’t stop with the presidential race and the U.S. Senate office. Go down the ballot. Find your local election. Or the referendums in Memphis. Or state races.

I have long said that people get worked up over the national races, but they can have more impact on how local and state governments are run because the representatives of those offices are your neighbors. People you can reach, where if you contact someone on the national level, it’s possible you get a form letter saying: “Thank you for your concern. We are looking into it, and we will get back to you.”

You have much more chance of getting a response from a municipal official, a state rep, or even your district congressman than those up the electorate chain.

I don’t know if we can ever reach this point, but wouldn’t it be nice if once you vote early, you could put in a code to designate that you no longer need any of the propaganda? That you’ve already cast your ballot, so there is no reason to continue to get bombarded. Wouldn’t that be pleasant? Of course, most people would try to get the ads to stop even if they hadn’t voted yet.

But more and more, candidates are probably building their main message at early voting. My colleague Bill Dries, who has covered a lot of elections (although he was late to the “Boss” Crump era), says that the number of people going to the polls to early vote is hovering between 75% and 80%.

Shouldn’t that be significant enough to tone back on the ads the last few days?

— Suburbs editor, Clay Bailey

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