First off, a disclaimer: I’m not writing this to try to influence you to support or vote for a particular candidate or political party.
To me it seems like every four years for decades I’ve seen people shapeshift and begin acting verbally aggressive to each other as the election approaches, engaging more in judging others for whom they say they’re voting. No surprise that passions can run high, yet there’s a relatively high likelihood that kind of behavior is misplaced.
In most presidential elections since 1980, more than 40% of eligible voters didn’t even cast a ballot.
Is that the best we can do as a country?
If you’re a trucker, I know it can seem difficult to try and vote. So many drivers are far away from home on Election Day, even if you plan around it to vote in person on the day in question, there’s a high likelihood the voting location isn’t exactly truck parking-friendly. It’s quite logical to think there are just too many roadblocks and inconveniences.
It’s easy to just throw up your hands and say, Forget it, my vote doesn’t matter. It’s just one vote. If that’s been the case for an individual, I’d wager, too, it primes that person to feel deprived of the very right to vote in our elections.
I’m here to tell you your single vote matters. When I was thinking about this recently, I looked around for those historical statistics of the percentage of voter participation. As suggested above, just a bit more than half of eligible voters typically cast votes in Presidential elections. Low turnout increases not only the importance of voting generally, but fundamentally means individual votes carry significant weight. More weight than you might think.
Election laws, rules and procedures vary state to state for getting registered, if you’re not registered already. Deadlines for registration to participate this year are approaching quickly, generally, and requirements for proof of residence and citizenship will apply. Find your state’s requirements, and understand them. You can do that starting with the Vote.gov website.
There, select your state of residence, and you’ll be directed to information about your state’s registration procedures and the site containing the rest of what you'll need to complete the process to become a registered voter. Or: if you’re not sure whether you’re registered, you can find out if you are.
As an example, here is a screenshot of the opening page for my home state of Illinois.
Also know your options for casting a vote. As Overdrive’s detailed over several election cycles now, in addition to absentee ballots that can always be requested by a certain date, early voting periods are very common around the country today, offering more options for traveling workers like truckers to fit a visit to a polling place into the schedule. Like half of owner-operators indicated when Overdrive last surveyed them about voting procedures ahead of the 2022 midterms, my wife Marcia and I have taken advantage of those early voting or mail-in absentee ballots for years. For us, this relieves many of the mental worries about making it to the polling place on Election Day, even though our polling place is only about a mile from home.
[Related: How to make sure your vote gets counted as deadlines approach]
Truth is, like so many owner-operators, we can never be certain of our personal schedule even a few weeks in advance. We take advantage of the opportunities with great satisfaction.
A tip for better access to home mail deliveries
So much of our paperwork lives online anymore, it’s easy to miss what doesn’t. There’s a tool that can help if you, like me, might be likely to miss an application form to register to vote absentee/by mail, one of those things that, at least here in Illinois, still hits the old physical mailbox.
This free, easy-to-access service provided by the U.S. Postal Service I’ve found many people just don’t know about. It could help you avoid missing a crucial deadline for the mail-in ballot process, if you’re struggling keeping up with the mail delivered to your home address while you’re away.
The “Informed Delivery” tool scans the address side of letter-size mail, as noted, and makes notifications available to you for remote mobile access.
By receiving these notifications, you might avoid missing other deadlines, too: many of the truck owners I know wait for permits, insurance confirmations and policy notifications, etc. Help yourself avoid surprises that might also avoid penalties and/or other fees.
A personal example: A speeding ticket I received in the mail a few months back. It had a deadline attached that, if I missed it, the fine would have tripled.
Make the most of the free service.
[Related: Following the trucking money in Trump v. Harris and other races]
Find plenty more informational resources in the Overdrive/ATBS-coproduced "Partners in Business" book for new and established owner-operators, a comprehensive guide to running a small trucking business sponsored for 2024 by the Rush Truck Centers dealer network. Follow this link to download the most recent edition of Partners in Business free of charge.
