Go Vote!

News stories are now talking about the drive on both sides to get out the vote today. It amazes me that it takes this much effort to get people to go make some choices about their government. But I know from the times I’ve worked in political campaigns that the results often come down to who managed to do a better job getting their supporters out on election day.

My wife and I will not make it to the polls until evening, when we may have to stand in line. In fact, I hope we will have to stand in line. That would mean that our precinct has good turnout. I’ll pass by the pollling place several times today, but we like to do this together. We always go over the sample ballot and discuss our votes and the reasons for them in the days before the election, and then we go together. We don’t always vote the same way. Sometimes people, especially couples, find it hard to discuss politics when they disagree strongly on candidates, but while we sometimes disagree passionately, we have never found it so. We just mark one ballot with different colors and we can tell where we’re going to cancel out.

Some folks out there are telling themselves that their vote doesn’t count and it isn’t important. But just because you can’t cast the deciding vote doesn’t mean what you do isn’t important. In sports we give special mention to the player who drove in the winning run, or scored the winning touchdown. But it’s not like that in politics. Not only do we not know who cast the vote that gave a candidate a lead, even the percentages will become part of the political debate over the next few years.

If you think this election is less important because it’s not a presidential year, think again. It may be that you think your vote isn’t important because you only worry about the presidential election in which you’re one of many millions. But I’m sure you have local races. Local races are important.

This is a team activity in which everyone can participate. Get off the bench!