The Presidential election and the high-profile Senate races have been taking the spotlight in these last few weeks. But when it comes to the decisions that affect your community, nothing is more important than the local races and ballot issues closer to the end of your ballot.
That's why we urge you to #CompleteYourBallot.
Around the country, hundreds of legislative races are decided by only a handful of votes. Sometimes the margin of victory or defeat comes from voters filling out the top of their ballot and stopping, or forgetting to complete a second page. These races aren’t just footnotes, they determine which priorities your legislators take on when they reconvene – and which ones they don’t.
That’s why it’s so important to #CompleteYourBallot.
The 2010 election taught us some very valuable lessons.
Wisconsinites watched as supposedly “moderate” Republican state representatives and state senators rubber-stamped Governor Scott Walker’s radical, anti-worker agenda that threw the state into turmoil.
Ohioans shouted “shame!” as Senate Bill 5 was rammed through and put into law, and as voting rights faced obstacles unheard of in previous years.
Michiganders saw unprecedented attacks on women’s rights, teachers, and public schools – not to mention the “emergency financial manager” law that stripped towns and cities of democratic rule.
Pennsylvanians saw their Republican-controlled legislature cut public education by nearly a billion dollars, while passing a costly, unconstitutional “voter ID” law that put 750,000 citizens at risk of disenfranchisement. That voter ID law, by the way, passed by only three votes in the State Senate.
The list goes on and on and reaches every state. The existence of a Democratic or pro-worker U.S. Senators or Congressmen in these states had no effect on the actions of the state legislatures.
How many people stopped voting after the third office? How many people looked at the State Reps and State Senators on their ballots, shrugged, and left them blank?
At Working America, we’re telling everyone: #CompleteYourBallot.
Help us spread the word – check out our ballot completion Facebook events, RSVP to the one in your state, and use the button in the upper-right corner to invite everyone you know.
If you’re a Twitter user as well tweet with the hashtag #CompleteYourBallot about the significant local races and ballot initiatives in your state.
Yes, we strongly urge you to vote for President Obama – but don’t stop there. Complete your entire ballot – every page and every side.
Reposted from Working America's Main Street Blog