by James Glaser
November 5, 2002

Many people, in some places the majority, will not vote this year. I have read some very persuasive articles about not voting, but those people don't live in Minnesota, nor do they have any hope left for their children's education.

In Minnesota and I am sure if those writers thought about it, the rest of this nation, there are many elections that make a difference. School Board, township, city, and county elections are all about your daily life and you are voting for people that you most likely have some personal interaction with. The smaller the unit of government and the more power that unit of government has on your day to day life. I can understand that when voting for President and Senator, that one vote doesn't seem like much and not voting can be a statement, but even those wanting to be your Representative in Washington will usually listen to your point of view and they know that their district is small enough that they have to pay attention to the local people back home. Also their terms are short.

Hey, I know people that vote for the worst guy as a protest vote and I think more and more people are voting that way. The proof is in the people getting elected.

I would like to say that voting for judges matters, but in this state you have no idea who they are or what they stand for, so I always vote for the challenger. If the person running for some office lets on that they are a lawyer, they usually lose my vote too.

Some day America might just start representing the citizen and not the corporation and we will want people to vote. So teach your children and grandchildren what a great RIGHT voting is and take them with you to the polls.

If less and less people vote we could lose that right and I do believe that there are many in Washington today that would like that.