Many of you have probably already cast your votes. There has been a huge amount of debate about who to vote for as president. However, the ballot extends far beyond the presidential candidates.
In Mississippi, the ballot includes the state’s seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, the state Supreme Court and a constitutional referendum on same sex marriages.
Despite the fact that they have received relatively little attention, all of these elections are important. In many ways, they are more important than the presidential elections.
In contrast to the presidential elections, the House and Supreme Court elections have relatively small electorates. While the presidential election may draw 100 million voters, each House seat draws between 100,000 and 200,000 votes. Also, there is no Electoral College buffering the voters from the candidate selection. Thus, each vote has considerably more swing in the election. In other words, one’s decision in House or Supreme Court election has far more effect on the election and thus law and policy than the presidential election.
Clearly, on a national level, representatives the most affected by an individual’s vote. This is exactly what the writers of the Constitution intended-the House is supposed to the branch of government most sensitive to be the immediate views and opinions of the people. Ironically, though, during presidential election years almost no debate concerns the other offices.
Fortunately, though, many of the issues debated during the presidential campaigns apply to the other elections, especially the House elections. The war in Iraq, for instance, can only be fought with the consent of Congress.
In fact, many issues debated under the guise of presidential issues are more congressional. Budget discussions, especially, are primarily under the purview of Congress. While the president proposes a budget, he is merely a financial adviser. Congress actually spends the money. Economic and tax policy is similar, but even less in the president’s hands. Not only does the U.S. Congress levy taxes, but every state, county and municipal government does so as well. In fact, one’s economic situation is more likely to be affected by a change in millage (or land taxes) than a rebate from the International Revenue Service.
At first glance, it might seem that the easiest solution would be to support the party of your favored presidential candidate. However, both major political parties cover a broad swath of the political spectrum-John McCain tends to look at things differently than George W. Bush-so voting by party lines is an option only for the ignorant.
Instead, research the candidates. With the Internet, it is extremely easy to search out the individual candidate’s platform and history as well as any discussion for or against the candidate. A search will only take a few minutes, so you could do it after class or before work. This works for all candidates, both national, state level and local. There is almost always some information about them on the internet.
State leaders are just as important as national ones. Outside of foreign policy, the state government has to deal with nearly everything the national one does and a lot more things besides that. In fact, as far as laws-the fundamental building blocks of the government and its actions-go, the state government has much more power over us than the national government. Thus, while it may seem the presidential and other national level elections are more important, the local and state elections are the ones that impact our lives the most.
Today is Election Day. It’s not presidential election day. It’s not national office election day. In many ways, the presidential election is the least important election this day, both in our ability to affect it and in the immediate impact of our choices upon our lives.
Don’t get caught up hype of the presidential election. The most important votes are for our representatives and state officials-our loudest voices in the governance of our nation.
Nathan Alday is a senior aerospace engineering major. He can be reached at [email protected].