Please do not vote early! Political parties often urge us to fear the opposing party’s candidate, to disparage the independent as a spoiler and to vote early to “lock in” your vote for their candidate.

That’s what the Democrats did in 2010, fearing a Paul LePage victory, by calling independent businessman Eliot Cutler a spoiler. In an attempt to sway the polls ahead of Election Day, voters cast early votes for the Democratic candidate, longtime party favorite Libby Mitchell.

But in the last few weeks, Mitchell plunged in the polls and the independent soared to within 1.5 percent of the votes needed to beat LePage. Thus it was not the independent who secured LePage’s victory, but those who voted early and, unable to “unlock” their votes, could not block the LePage win. The rest is history.

So don’t rush your vote. It will be most powerful on Election Day.

Karen Coombs

Brewer