Vote 2010: Why Are Mid-Term Elections Important?

Mid-term elections are almost here! Remember to get out and VOTE and take a friend or two with you to the polls.

Folks, there are elections all across the country on Tuesday, November 2 and THEY MATTER.

Many of us believe that we are fulfilling our ‘civic responsibility’ by voting once every four years. Only about 20-30% of all voters participate in mid-term or local elections, that’s why corrupt local officials continue to do absolutely nothing for the majority of their constituents. Imagine, in some towns less than 100 people out of 10,000 registered voters vote! Because of this as little as 100 people can put corrupt politicians in office! Since the majority of the community did not vote for the corrupt officials they are not accountable to the citizens of their community. But believe me, they are doing what’s good for themselves and their friends who voted for them.

We’ll see important elections for Governor and important Mayoral elections and we should be focused on them. Plus races for City Council, State Legislature Judges, Sheriffs and other positions are also up for grabs. These elections might not receive as much publicity and hype and may not seem to be as ‘sexy’ as the Presidential elections but they are more important in many ways.

These elections will affect our daily lives: Raising fees throughout our cities and towns, raising property taxes, hiring teachers, hiring police officers, hiring firemen, funding our schools to make them more effective and fighting disparities in our criminal justice system are all determined by the City Council, Commissioner’s Court, Sherriff’s office and by local and state judges yet we ignore these elections. We should gladly spend time in lines to make sure our votes are counted in our local elections.

Even though President Obama is the leader of our country and the leader of the Democratic Party, once he authorizes monies to go out to our states, our Governor and local elected officials are the ones who decide HOW to really spend the monies.

Our President is VERY important but our local elected officials are the people who distribute Federal funds once they receive them. They can decide to allocate these funds in a meaningful way that helps communities-at-large or they can decide to waste the money they receive from the federal government to serve their own and their buddies, allies and followers personal agendas.

In order for President Obama’s policies to be effective, we need local politicians in office who have a similar vision.

Know which local politician(s) in your community will do the most for you and your family. Share this information with your neighbors and friends and please make sure everyone in your household go out and vote and make sure each person takes a friend with them to the polls.

We cannot sit idly by and watch a few 'non-thinkers' take over the political system and then we will have to live with their decisions – that is CRAZY! What about what WE want. It seems to me that those who know do not speak and those who speak do not know. If ‘thinkers’ do not unite and make our voices heard we will all have to live with the decisions that the ‘non-thinkers’ made and it will be our own fault.

Keep your eyes on the prize — vote on Tuesday, November 2 and Early Vote if it’s an option in your state!!!

Peace, Love and Understanding!