Letter: An early voter takes offense

Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2002 | 8:59 a.m.

I wish to respond to Jon Ralston's Aug. 18 column, "Election officials foster apathy," in which he applied the following words to describe me: "fool," "sloth," "willful idiot," and "lazy ignoramus." Mr. Ralston did not describe just me in those terms, but everyone else in Clark County who takes advantage of early voting in elections.

Mr. Ralston is under the impression that early voters must be the most ill-informed of the voting electorate, because they simply cannot wait until Election Day to see what kind of late-breaking scandal he and his media cronies can come up with on Candidate X.

On the contrary, early voters are likely to be the most informed voters of the electorate, because they study the candidates, do the research, read the ballot questions and know well before Election Day who they will be voting for. They are not part of the wishy-washy undecided electorate, swayed by last minute lies, mudslinging, and other examples of dirty politics.

I am not a fool, sloth, willful idiot, or lazy ignoramus because I vote early, and neither is anyone else who does so. If Mr. Ralston gets warm and fuzzy because he casts his vote on Election Day, more power to him. But that is no reason to insult and denigrate early voters who can handle their civic duty just fine without being bombarded with desperate candidate advertising and tabloid journalism for an extra two weeks.

JAMES M. GIUFFRE