Keep your eyes on the prize!

We’re in the home stretch to Election Day, and our job now is to keep our eyes on the prize. There’s only one thing counted on election night, and it’s the number of votes actually cast for each candidate. The job between now and then is to increase those numbers. Get people to utilize early voting. Remind people to vote. Drive them to the polls. And for those who can’t get there, make sure they fill out their absentee ballots.

There will be many things that will arise to distract us from this simple numbers game. Don’t get caught by them.

• There will be abstruse arguments about the interpretation of Church documents. Now I have the highest respect for Church documents; in fact, I’ve helped to write some of them. And I think we all need to read and study them more, which is why Priests for Life prepares study guides for many of them. But this is not the time to get caught up in arguments about what a document means or doesn’t mean. This is the time to spend our energy getting people to the voting booth.
  
  One of the avenues, by the way, where some people will spread confusion about these documents is through various seminars on “faithful citizenship.” Despite the fact that Church documents place clear priority on the right to life, some try to muddy the waters and say all issues are equal. Don’t get distracted. Answer them with your feet and get people to the voting booth.
  
  
• You will hear about silly fears and arguments about crossing tax-exempt lines, or all kinds of assertions that “we can’t distribute this or that voters’ guide in our diocese.” Thank the priest for letting you know, but don’t waste time arguing with him. Go pick up the slack, educate voters, and get them to the voting booth. 
  
  
• There will be psychological warfare about who is ahead or where the polls are leaning or how hard it is for one or another to win. The fact is that the presidential race is too close to call and for all practical purposes it’s going to stay that way. So just focus on getting votes.
  
  
• You may be tempted to have arguments with the hard of heart, to persuade those who always vote the wrong way to vote the right way. We’ll work on their conversion later. For now, focus on getting people to the polls.
  
  
• Finally, some will criticize candidates who call themselves pro-life, saying that they are not pro-life enough. They may have a point, but now’s not the time to make it. Go out and get as many votes as possible for the best candidates who are actually within reach of winning.

In my next columns, I will discuss the “Election Day Traps” and how to avoid them. In the meantime, please

a) Pass this column along to others.
b) Say the daily prayer at ElectionPrayer.com.
c) Distribute our voter guides, available at PoliticalResponsibility.com.

Thank you!