FROM THE EDITOR: Go show the value of your vote— even if primary’s decided

This is where I remind you how important it is to vote—every time, every election. If the government is going to offer us a voice as a citizen base, then by God use it.

On Saturday, early voting opens for Florida’s registered Republicans to cast a vote in a March 17 presidential primary many voices have told you is already decided.

That might be the case. But go be a part of something, and make a mark next to someone’s name. Value that vote.

I will level with you: since I don’t receive a mail-in ballot, I’m not sure I’m crazy about driving to a place, stopping to get out, provide ID, wait for the ballot to print and then later put it in the counterbox- thingy—all to take about three seconds to color in one oval.

But I’m going to do it. Because I value my vote.

And I realize, telling you that, I’ve outed myself as a Republican. I’m probably less and less of one these days. I was proud to be a Reagan Republican, during a time when candidates put their best foot forward and ran with conviction, and in defeat didn’t cry, “They cheated!” I thought Newt Gingrich was a man with a plan. I think Mitch McConnell is a corpse for a crypt.

My family was like many others in the 1980s: our trajectory changed for the better during the Ronald Reagan administration. Poor George H.W. Bush started a war in Iraq and sent the economy into a tailspin and couldn’t cash in on the momentum. And his son Bush the Second was . . . well . . . man, I give him an ‘A’ for effort. In between, Bill Clinton might have been the best Democratic president of our generation. Obama? Again, that ‘A’ for effort. He showed up every day and tried, man.

So who am I voting for? Nah. That’s the beauty of a secret ballot. You don’t tell me the name next to your colored oval, I won’t tell you mine, and we move on—to the primaries in August.

After March 17, I wish we could all go to bed and wake up in time to vote in that August election— because everything in between is going to be loud and annoying.

We’re going to see the same commercials over and over again (Have they even studied if those work to get votes?). We’re going to get texts. And calls. And mailers . . . so many mailers that our mailboxes will fill up for the first time since, well, we last did this two years ago. The U.S. Postal Service might actually turn a profit in 2024. See? Voting has value.

I wish those mailers were written on usable napkins, or even toilet paper.

Then they’d have value, too.