Make Your Vote Count in This Election—and Every Election

Here’s some election news that is both encouraging and troubling.

The good people of Minnesota are leaning heavily toward passing a constitutional amendment that would authorize a statewide sales-tax increase to provide more money for the environment and the arts, according to a telephone poll of likely voters commissioned by the Star Tribune newspaper.

Fifty-nine percent said they planned to vote for the amendment, and 32 percent said they would vote no. Support for the amendment came from all age, income and gender groups, and was also favored by both urban and rural voters.

Despite strong support for the amendment, however, very few Minnesota voters really know what it would do.

Here are the basics:

The amendment would usher in a small sales tax increase (three-eighths of one percent), which would raise $276 million annually for 25 years and cost the average Minnesota household only $60 a year (or $5 a month). Thirty-three percent of the money would support clean water projects, another 33 percent would finance work on game, fish and wildlife habitat, 19.75 percent would go to arts and culture projects, and 14.25 percent would be used to build and maintain parks and trails.

Good stuff, right? But here’s the trouble: the poll also shows that 40 percent of those surveyed said they have heard “nothing at all” about the proposed amendment, while 49 percent said they had heard “some” or “only a little.” Only 10 percent said they had heard “a lot” about the ballot measure.

Both supporters and opponents of the proposed amendment took this news as a sign that they have to work harder to get their message to the voters. And while that may be true, the poll also points to a disturbing and growing trend in voter habits.

Are You Making Your Vote Count?
More and more often, we end up voting for candidates and proposals we know little or nothing about. There are many reasons for this, of course. We’re all extremely busy with work and family obligations, and both sides of every campaign try so hard to persuade us to adopt their point of view that they often make it harder, not easier, to understand the issues. But there are no good excuses.

As a citizen in a free society with a representative government, your vote is one of the most powerful tools you have to effect change and to help determine the priorities and future direction of your community and the nation. And your status as a voter and a taxpayer gives additional force to many of your other tools—from community organizing to civil disobedience—because decision makers from City Hall to Washington, D.C., draw their power from you.

This election, and every election, make the effort to get informed and vote strategically. Find out how local ballot measures will affect you and your neighbors, and which candidates best represent your views and are likely to advance or safeguard the issues you value.

Always be sure to vote—it is your right and your responsibility—and when you do vote, make sure you are informed and prepared to use your vote well.

Also read:

• Minnesota Poll Sales tax hike for environment, arts has broad support – Star Tribune
• How One Person Can Change the World