Early voting

Today I voted early as part on an experimental program in my state to try early voting centers. I had lunch, checked my email, and leisurely drove to the local voting center not 10 minutes from my house. The people in line were relaxed and smiling and the short line moved along just fine, all in all a huge improvement over the hassle and long lines of a typical voting day. I was told by a local candidate running for office that a few politicians at the state house were not liking these voting centers. I asked her why and she said typically candidates would line up just outside of a voting center on voting day, at the precincts they felt they might have a shot at winning, to shake a few hands one last time and be seen and with early voting there was no way they could be there everyday for two weeks to get that last bit of exposure. To me this all sounds so crazy, as If haven't made up my mind long before I vote, and having to shake a hand I may not want to shake or even deal with it makes me crazy. On top of that the selfish desire to campaign right up until the last second could cost me my right to vote early, as if the onslaught of early campaigning wasn’t enough? I’d love to see a law that says there can be no campaign advertising with signage or TV ads until 6 months before an election, with the amount that can be spent limited to a point all candidates can match. Maybe then candidates would keep to some sort of message other than the trash talk we hear most of the time. My mother used to tell us, “If you can’t say something nice, don't say anything at all”. No truer advice could be given even today…