October 28, 2008

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You may have heard this before: Go Vote!

Photo by Eric Tadsen

Carole Schaeffer is Forté Madison's resource for updates on area politics.

"Falling off the ticket" means you stop voting after the big dogs on the ballot. You just don't vote for anyone further down the ticket because you don't know who they are, the lines were longer than you thought and you just want to get out of there, or you think "who cares who my State Assembly person is anyway?"

You should care about that person a lot — and you should know enough to cast a vote. It matters. In my first column (read it here) I talked about how a Madison alder was elected by only 10 votes, and ended up being instrumental in shifting the policy discussions across the city because of a public safety meeting that served as catalyst for change. Now that's change right in your backyard.

Being someone that has studied political science, history and public administration, I am a bit geekier about doing my research on various candidates prior to the election — and have probably debated the various policy issues ad nausea with my friends and colleagues. I've even noticed the number of invitations to dinner parties at my non-policy wonk friends' houses decline slightly in election years. The thing is, as critical as it is to vote for the president, each level of government down the spectrum brings the person you're voting into office closer to home. Literally. And like I said, the decisions made locally are the ones that impact you on a day-to-day basis.

This year's election the ballot will not have aldermanic races, but there is a fight in the State Legislature for control of the Assembly — and whether the Republicans keep it or the Democrats take over, the impact on public policy will be significant. If the State Legislature and the governor are of the same political party, you have an entirely different dynamic that if you have a split. You might find that exciting or terrifying, depending on your political affiliation.

There are also Congressional Races — though, you are more likely to know the players there than your County Board Supervisor or State Representatives. You don't have to do an immense amount of research to find out where these people stand. If you are a tried and true Democrat or Republican, chances are you will vote straight ticket (this means you don't have to pick a person in each race, you can just say "if they have the appropriate letter after their name, I vote yes"). However, there are a fair number of independents, moderates, and cross-overs (this is when someone picks a Democratic presidential candidate even though he usually votes Republican and the rest of his votes are for Republican candidates — or the reverse).

Since the advent of Google, I cannot think of one good excuse for you not to do a little work to find out what the candidates are saying, especially since you're most likely sitting at a computer to read this. You might even find a funny You Tube video of a local politician flying over Las Vegas. I am not mentioning any names, but it's a good one.

Last, but by no means least: don't forget the referenda. Madison has one this cycle that would allow the school district to permanently exceed the revenue cap for operations money by $13 million a year to avoid having to make $27 million in cuts. I admit that my understanding of school funding in Wisconsin is about as easy as speaking Klingon, but (again with the Internet), there is a lot of good information available that explains this issue.

Don't forget: you also can vote early at the County Clerk's office if you suffer from agoraphobia and want to avoid the crowds on Election Day.

Voting information is available here:
http://www.co.dane.wi.us/coclerk/ccvoting.htm

Get out there. Vote. And don't fall off the ticket!

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