A man goes into a voting booth…

Wednesday afternoon I voted, early, folding my partisan cheat sheet, jamming it in my pocket, and strolling out my front door, turning right. Taking another right at the corner, and over to the Northbrook Village Hall, mid-block.

Easy-peasy. In many nations, citizens can’t vote at all, or only have sham elections. In the United States of America, our votes still matter, still carry significance, and can lead to changes in policy and values. We’ve witnessed that, big time, in the whipsaw of national elections. Bill Clinton. George W. Bush. Barack Obama. Donald Trump. Joe Biden. Donald Trump redux.

Line up behind whomever you please. But is there anyone who can say there isn’t a difference between electing one of these men or the other? (Actually yes, my viva la revolution pals who are so lost in lefty dogma they miss subtle differences, like one president trying to give millions of Americans health insurance, and another trying to pluck them off the street and deport them because their papers aren’t in order).

To claim otherwise, to call elections “rigged” based on nothing but hurt feelings —”ooo, I didn’t win; somebody must have cheated because I ALWAYS win!” — is to insult the core of our national identity.

Many do just that. Many Americans don’t vote at all. Some 90 million sat out the past presidential election. Thirty-six percent of eligible voters. Thanks guys. Of course, I’m assuming those with better things to do would have saved the day. Maybe if they got off the couch and did their patriotic duty, Trump would have won ever more bigly. My faith in the electorate is at low ebb.

As for the politicians… I scanned my cheat sheet as I walked over. For a bigshot major metro newspaper columnist such as myself, voting is also personal. I’ve broken bread with eight different candidates on the ballot, at various points over the years. Quite a lot really. Some have sulked off, stung by something I’d written. I voted for them anyway, even though I don’t like them, personally. They still seem like they’re doing their jobs.

“I figure, might as well vote while I still can,” I joked to an election judge. It was supposed to be a joke, though it isn’t very funny.

The Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan law and policy organization, has a page called “Timeline of the Trump Administration’s Efforts to Undermine Elections.” It begins:

“In 2025, a new threat to free and fair elections emerged: the federal government.”

“Since day one of his second term, the Trump administration has attempted to rewrite election rules to burden voters and usurp control of election systems, targeted and threatened election officials and others who keep elections free and fair, supported people who undermine election administration, and retreated from the federal government’s role of protecting voters and the electoral process.”

It lists 21 executive actions taken in the past 14 months to make voting harder. And here’s the really sad part: the 21 actions are color coded. Black is “Attempting to usurp control of elections.” Red is “Threatening people who keep elections free and fair.” Magenta is “Supporting people who undermine elections” and blue is “Reorienting government away from voter protection.”

Color coded. To help keep all the attacks against free elections straight. For instance, swearing in a staunch election denier, Pam Bondi, as attorney general, is magenta, “Supporting people who undermine elections” while the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency firing hundreds of workers dedicated to protecting election fairness and cutting millions of dollars from their efforts is blue, “Reorienting government away from voter protection.”

There are many things to worry about in 2026. A war on in Iran, threatening to spread in dire ways no one can predict, not to mention cratering the world economy. A war on immigrants, media, education, free speech, science, health care — basically every element of a decent society. It might seem narrow-minded to focus on just one aspect of the general calamity.

But casting a ballot — the simple act of strolling to the Village Hall, presenting my Voter ID, going into a private voting booth and pecking satisfying fat checkmarks on a screen — is such an essential part of the American experience. Without fair elections, how does power shift? By violence and intrigue or, more likely, not at all.

To me, election integrity is the most important issue facing us. If we can’t vote, we can’t influence government and it can do whatever it likes, unchecked. We see that in action now. One way to understand our current administration is this: they’re acting like they will never leave power. Whether they are correct or not depends on the survival of free and fair elections.