VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!

Reminder to L. A.W. Readers, 

It’s that time again – primary season.  Tomorrow is Tuesday, August 7th. 

Big races are on the ballot ranging from Mayor of Grand Rapids, City Commissioners and finally to Grand Rapids Community College.

If you are unsure of where each of the candidates stand on things, Bill did an excellent review of the mayoral candidates below, along with a brief piece on GRCC. It only takes a few minutes to read up on the facts, make a decision, fill out that ballot and then cast your vote.

Your opinion counts - go out and make a difference.

Comments

[Nick]

I think it was the FREEP mentioning this morning that no one votes in these but everyone votes in the Presidential elections... and that's goofy, because these races are going to impact folks locally for years to come.

Get out there and vote.

Thanks for fighting the fight and leading the "awareness" charge!

--Nick

[Bridget Dupont-Tingley, Editor @L.A.W.]

Hello Nick,

You are correct that what happens in these elections - in between big state and presidential elections - do impact all of us more directly.

Why people choose to tune out and tune off is certainly an interesting question. Often in smaller towns like ours, information is hard to come by. We all know how weak our local media has been on this issue to date. Many debates weren't covered at all or at a bare minimum. Newspaper and t.v. coverage was limited and often leaned a certain way (toward Heartwell & the requested GRCC increase). Websites have been hit or miss for many of the candidates. Mailers, door to door visits and interviews were sporadic and set for certain areas, not all. People often feel nothing they can do really makes a difference (au contraire - think immigration issue). Finally, the political players are often less inspiring than you would like and not nearly as polished as the big time guys, but that's no reason to ignore the facts of a campaign and a change that may be needed in your local community. Being educated on the issues simply involves a citizen caring enough to do a little more homework on their own.

Like a rock hitting the surface of a pond, it takes but a single action to hopefully create a much larger reaction. Hopefully, websites like ours - The Local Area Watch, websites like yours at www.rightmichigan.com and Jeff's at www.michiganliberal.com try to get the word out for those who care. We are that rock being tossed. Maybe with that action, we'll inspire a few along the way that didn't care before, but may now. Thus, the wave begins (and let's face it, even those of us involved on a regular basis loose some interest now and then!).

If you don't know the issues and would just be guessing on the ballot, it's ok to stay home. An uninformed vote can be dangerous in the wrong hands :-)

Thanks for the nice words. Keep up the good work yourself.

Regards,