Please do not vote early! Political parties often urge us to fear the opposing party’s candidate, to disparage the independent as a spoiler and to vote early to “lock in” your vote for their candidate.
That’s what the Democrats did in 2010, fearing a Paul LePage victory, by calling independent businessman Eliot Cutler a spoiler. In an attempt to sway the polls ahead of Election Day, voters cast early votes for the Democratic candidate, longtime party favorite Libby Mitchell.
But in the last few weeks, Mitchell plunged in the polls and the independent soared to within 1.5 percent of the votes needed to beat LePage. Thus it was not the independent who secured LePage’s victory, but those who voted early and, unable to “unlock” their votes, could not block the LePage win. The rest is history.
So don’t rush your vote. It will be most powerful on Election Day.
Karen Coombs
Brewer
Copy the Story LinkSend questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.