"Election Day is still a big deal. The TV news send crews to polling places, we write editorials and we report the 'event.'

But that story is shrinking. Most of us -- some 70 percent in Washington state -- vote absentee. The story ought to chronicle folks in their living room, dropping a ballot into the mail, or something else than the event that we've covered routinely.

The time frame of a ballot-based election is different, too. Some Americans will begin voting for president in the next few days or in a couple of weeks. Then it does not matter what's said on the campaign trail or how someone's lead in the polls constricts, because the election is already over.

Even the counting time could be different. Some people -- OK, I am one -- vote the day they get their ballot. Others mark their ballot at the last second, dropping it in the mail on Election Day."

Get the Story:
Mark Trahant: When the media gets it wrong (The Seattle Post-Intelligencer 9/19)

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