Today Is A Day To Vote

Today is voting primary day here in the Frozen Northlands. I wish I could claim this would end the non-stop political advertisements and phone calls, but I know better. This is merely the precursor to thousands of ads and appearance tweaks before the actual election in November. Then we may have six months of relative silence before it all begins again. Do any of our elected officials really care about anything except getting re-elected? 

It's important to vote, even if it is in a primary election. Voting
is a privilege, not a right. 

Nonetheless, I'll drop by the polling station after breakfast, before I head to the shop for the day. It's a bit of back-and-forth, but I doubt there will be major crowds of any kind and it won't take long to cast my ballot. Will my vote make a difference? At this stage of the game, probably not, although I expect our actual November election will be rather tight in some of the races. 

Sometimes it seems that the candidate with the deepest
pockets or the loudest voice is the victor. Not
necessarily the best endorsement. 

I was raised by immigrants from World War II - Jews who were able to (barely) escape the Nazi war machine. Having a voice through the election process is almost sacred, or at least that's what I was taught. Politically, my parents were liberals and I was raised to reflect their ideals. I do, almost all of the time. I voted Libertarian once, and Independent another time, and even voted Republican once, but most of the time I'm a staunch Democrat. But I vote the person, not the party, and sometimes the person is on the other side of the fence. I vote my conscience. 

I wish that we actually had a system of ranked
voting. Ranked voting pulls things away from
party lines and says the person with the most
votes goes against the person with the second
highest total. Period. It's so simple. 

This is a primary election, though. This will toss some of the chaff into the air so that the November election will be a bit cleaner and have more positional clarity. Today's election will merely narrow the field. That's necessary, though. For example, right now there are three different candidates for my little suburb's mayorial position. After today's vote there will be two candidates remaining. Then the real fight begins. 

The major and minor political parties have permanent booths at the
State Fair (here's the DFL booth from a few years ago). Individual
candidates also, often have booths with scheduled "Meet the
Candidate" times. Here, Tim Walz is running for Congress. This
year he's running for Governor of the state. 

The fun part of election season are the various meet-and-greets that take place at the State Fair in a couple of weeks. All of the Statewide and the major City candidates will have booths at the Fair and will make personal appearances. If you have a specific question for a candidate, the Fair is a great place to make your query. 

And, I'm off. Adding voting into my schedule today means a very busy early morning for me. I'd probably better get my act together and head out to the pool. Have an excellent Tuesday, and if you have an election in your area today, go vote!