I looked up the word endless. It means “never-ending.” It's a good word that could sum up a modern presidential race. In the old days, not long ago, the serious part of a presidential campaign began shortly after Labor Day and ended on the “Tuesday after the first Monday.” This was known as Election Day and could be any date between November 2nd and 8th. This year it is November 5th.

These days it seems we're always in some kind of never-ending campaign mode. As soon as one is over, the next has begun. Furthermore, there is no longer “one” election day. We have early voting days that can begin a month or many weeks before official election day.

I was a traditionalist when it came to voting, but I've changed. I looked forward to voting on Election Day and stayed away from early voting. It was fun to look forward to voting on the “real day.” However, Donna Sue and I voted earlier this year. It was easy and there were no queues. Instead of taking an hour to vote after queuing, we voted within a few minutes.

Another change in our presidential election concerns the issue of postal voting. We have had mail-in ballots for a long time, but primarily for our military members who may be stationed overseas. Or someone who may be frail could request an absentee ballot.

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed that. People were afraid to go out among the people, and some state governments decided to simply send a ballot paper to every eligible voter. This could have been understood under pandemic circumstances, but it opened a Pandora's box of fraud. The 2020 election was controversial because so many ballots were mailed and then, reportedly, harvested.

While you can still request a ballot by mail, I hope this year's election is spared from this situation.

Nowadays there is another difference. In most cases in the past we knew the winner of the races on the same day. It may be late in the day, but before midnight we would probably know who our next president, senator or congressman would be.

I spent many evenings looking at the voting results. I liked the different networks and their predictions for winners in specific states. The countdown of the Electoral College results made for a good night of television for me.

Now an election can be decided by ballots that are not counted until three or four days after Election Day. I'm not a fan of this because when someone is leading the race at the end of election day but loses in the final count of the late votes, distrust comes to mind. I want to be confident when counting, and a long, drawn out count is frustrating, especially when my favorite comes out on the short end of the stick.

I obviously want my candidate to win, but most of all I want to be sure that the count is as accurate as possible. We've all heard that votes matter, but the one who counts the votes counts!

Finally, the question I asked was, “Will we know the winner by this time next week?” I remember the opera being long and boring. Many people wished it was over, but the final scene consisted of a “healthy” soprano and a closing song.

The fidgety people were told, “It ain’t over until the fat lady sings.” Yogi Berra also said something like that. He said, “It ain't over 'til it's over.”

I'll be happy when this election is over!