By: Robert Scott

All writers in Op Ed are here to inform and acknowledge issues of importance to our communities, however these writings represent the views  and opinions of the authors and not necessarily of The Advertiser. 

We have reached the decision point: Election Day, 2020. 

When will you vote? There are still several options, even with less than one week to go before Election Day. It’s too late to vote by mail, but it is not too late to consider whom to vote for, and to vote any day but Sunday between now and next Tuesday. This year, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are still options. You can vote absentee as thousands of South Carolinians have already done, by delivering your absentee vote or having an authorized person deliver it for you, to the County Election Office on Penn Street in Edgefield – but you will need to do that today, or in any case by Friday, October 30. You can vote absentee but in person at that office – including on Saturday, October 31 (Happy Hallowe’en!) or on Monday, November 2. Or you can vote in person at your voting precinct, of course, on November 3.

How will you vote? Readers of this column will not be surprised to learn that I am voting a split ticket. The Republicans whom I am supporting include our State Senator, Shane Massey. Shane and I don’t agree on every issue and I wish our State government were more functional than it is, but Shane is a logical and caring representative for all of us, a good listener, and someone who is not afraid to cross party lines if he decides that is the right thing to do. All politicians should have a mind as open as Shane does, regardless of their party affiliation. But I cannot in good conscience vote for Donald Trump. To begin with, I would find it difficult if not impossible to vote for anyone whose speeches are filled with words I would want to shield my grandchildren from hearing, and for someone who is so far from a role model that I would be worried about any young American who thinks, “When I grow up, I want to be just like him.” I would find it hard if not impossible to support any politician whose campaign seems to consist primarily of repeatedly and falsely accusing the entire opposition of being socialists if not communists, and trying to scare voters into thinking that his opponents would lead to the United States gradually becoming the Soviet Union. Right-of-centerpoliticians have been saying that about Democrats ever since FDR ran for the first time in 1932, and the Republican candidate seeking reelection in 2020 is proving worse than Herbert Hoover was in his failed attempt to oppose Roosevelt. Instead, I am voting for someone whose campaign is built on a promise to bring us together – black and white, those who live on the coasts and those who live in between, rich and poor, the unemployed and business owners, those who in the past have voted for Republicans – even for dishonorable ones such as the current President – and those who in the past have voted for Democrats or even for Democratic Socialists. America is truly a big tent, and the goal of our government should be to respect and to serve us all. We need a change now, in order to elect just such a government. Donald Trump has proven incapable of doing that. Joe Biden will do so, starting on January 20 of next year.

But whether you agree with me or not as to whom you should vote for, please go to the polls before or during Election Day. Vote!