Flip A Coin?

Tomorrow is Election Day. The right to vote for our leaders is a fundamental and precious right we have as Americans. It is the mid-term election, a time when many seats in Congress are up for grabs and in my state more singularly significant offices like state governor are also in the voting mix.

The challenge comes when you don’t like any of the choices or when you’re not even sure what you are voting on or why.

Among my choices tomorrow are Register of Wills and Judge of the Orphan’s Court. For one thing, I don’t understand why Register of Wills is an elected position and not an appointed position, or more realistically, a government job. And there is only one candidate running for that office, unless I want to write one in. Hmm, maybe I could be the Register of Wills. And that Orphan’s Court thing? I just don’t know anything about that, but I can vote for up to three of the six candidates. Or, you guessed it, I can write some in.

The three most important offices on my ballot tomorrow, in my opinion, are Maryland State Governor, U.S. Senator for Maryland and U.S. Congressional Representative for my district. That Senate choice is easy for me: Barbara Mikulski! She is smart, sassy, outspoken, loved by many of her constituents and appears to be immune to special interests. Representative? I’ll vote for the Democrat but mostly because I don’t like the Republican. But no matter who I vote for, that Repub will win; he usually wins by 70% or more. He will keep winning till he decides to stop running.

I do not like either candidate for Maryland Governor. The odd thing about this race is that the current Governor is running against the previous Governor. Unlike most candidates, both of these guys have a four year record of what they each actually did rather than what they say they would do. Neither was bad for the state, but I don’t think either was all that good for it either. And most of the ads for both blame the other for things that the Governor doesn’t have all that much control over anyway.

Even when the choices aren’t good or the delineation between candidates is unclear, the fact that we have a choice is the most important part and I will exercise that right tomorrow. Then I will probably high-five someone because I’ll be so happy knowing that the political ads will finally be off my radio and television.

I'm Bernie and I approved this message.

Comments

Linda V. said…
I'm seriously considering asking that "NO Confidence" be placed on the ballot. That way, since the people no longer have a chance against corporate donations, we still have a way of making our voices heard. A resounding NO CONFIDENCE vote would send a loud message to the candidates that we, the people, are still in control. Until the Court grants corporations a vote, we the people, can send back the crappy candidates, and maybe get some good ones to run, ones who actually remember WHO they truly work for!
Bernie said…
In addition to that, I think 'term limits' is an concept whose time has come.