A Politico story says what I say in any speech on early voting:  early voting is bad. It increases political polarization as thousands of unwavering voters who have stubbornly made up their minds go to the polls.  It doesn’t increase turnout (as if that is an end in itself).  It creates ill-informed voters who check out of the debate early.  It fractures America further and eliminates a common cultural experience – voting together on election day.  More:

“Why? For all its conveniences, early voting threatens the basic nature of citizen choice in democratic, republican government. In elections, candidates make competing appeals to the people and provide them with the information necessary to be able to make a choice. Citizens also engage with one another, debating and deliberating about the best options for the country. Especially in an age of so many nonpolitical distractions, it is important to preserve the space of a general election campaign — from the early kickoff rallies to the last debates in October — to allow voters to think through, together, the serious issues that face the nation.

The integrity of that space is broken when some citizens cast their ballots as early as 46 days before the election, as some states allow.”