By Sheila Suess Kennedy
September 14, 2026
As the midterm elections near, Trump and the GOP are becoming more and more frantic, and engaging in a wide variety of tactics to suppress votes. A recent example: email and text messages urging recipients to check their registrations at links to phony sites. Voter integrity groups are trying to get the message out that registration checks should only be made at official sites–never through the links embedded in those messages.
We are seeing legal battles over maps, and over a Post Office effort to undermine voting by mail. We are seeing an outpouring of money by Elon Musk and other billionaires, and reports of election “monitors” being trained by far-Right organizations…All of these and other tactics are intended to send a message: don’t go to the polls. Don’t have confidence in your state officials’ ability to protect your vote.
By far the best way to defeat most of these anti-vote efforts is to vote early and in person.
At Hopium Chronicles, Simon Rosenberg has explained the importance of casting an early ballot. He points out that, in most states, voters can now vote early in person or with mail/drop box ballots. (Not Indiana, of course–we have no drop boxes.) Early voting not only makes it easier for working people to vote, it has allowed campaigns to improve their Get-Out-The-Vote efforts. Every night, campaigns get a list of people who voted that day, allowing them to focus their efforts only on the people who haven’t yet voted. The larger the number of voters who vote early–preferably on Day 1–the easier it is to increase turnout for one’s candidate.
As Simon says,
Voting on Day 1 has other benefits. A heavy early turnout leads to stories about “hey everyone is voting” putting social pressure on people to go vote, which also increases turnout. Voting early in big numbers also becomes a very public affirmation that our democracy and election system is working as intended, which creates a greater incentive for people to vote and makes it far harder for the Republicans to cheat, disrupt or contest the election.
Rosenberg isn’t the only one explaining how early voting can produce a Blue wave that will be harder for the election deniers to question.
The Contrarian explains how the NO KINGS coalition plans to trigger an early vote. In a press release, the groups comprising the coalition announced that October 17 will be a day of “coordinated, nonpartisan action across the country to drive early voting.” Rather than one big protest, the goal is to generate thousands of local events “working toward a common goal: making sure every eligible voter has a plan to vote early (where possible), knows their options for how to vote, and is ready to make their voice count by casting their ballot.”
As the Contrarian acknowledges, Americans are facing a genuinely unprecedented voter suppression onslaught, so the forces protecting democracy must devote their time and resources to combating voter confusion and attempted disenfranchisement.
As Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen (a member of the No Kings Coalition) noted in the press release announcing the event: “The importance of as many people as possible voting early cannot be overstated.” She explained, “Early voting can make the difference between voting and not voting for people who are traveling, who are working on Election Day, who need options for childcare while voting, and more.”
Much more, actually. We’ve all seen reports from prior elections highlighting repeated Election Day shenanigans: long lines due to fewer voting sites in minority neighborhoods and fewer voting machines in heavily Democratic precincts… Early voting is an excellent way to neuter these efforts.
Voting by mail also makes these typical tactics irrelevant, which is undoubtedly why Trump is so fixated on attacking it. (Claims that thousands of illegal votes are cast by mail have repeatedly been proven false; despite those claims, the administration has identified and charged exactly 4 illegal voters in two elections involving hundreds of millions of voters.) Given the uncertainty that Trump has injected into the usually safe and convenient mail-in vote process, voters in states with drop boxes can deliver their ballots that way. In states without, those who still want the convenience of filling out a mailed ballot can deliver them to any Early Voting location or to any Vote Center before 6:00 p.m. on Election Day.
In Indiana, early in-person voting starts October 6th–even before the NO KINGS roll-out–and this old lady plans to be in line then.
Vote early and VOTE BLUE NO MATTER WHO. It will make the Mad King even madder….
Sheila Suess Kennedy is Emerita Professor of Law and Public Policy at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis. As an attorney, she practiced real estate, administrative and business law in Indianapolis before becoming corporation counsel for the City of Indianapolis in 1977. In 1980, she was the Republican candidate for Indiana’s then 1th Congressional District and in 1992, she became executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana. She joined the faculty of the School of Public and Environment al Affairs in 1998.
This column was originally published by Sheila Kennedy on her blog, “A Jaundiced Look at the World We Live In.” The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
