Get out and vote

In my last column I argued that if we want better representation from our elected officials then we need to participate more in the process.  We need to demand better, but we also need to give better of ourselves to make that happen.  On Sept. 13, we all have a chance to do just that by voting in the municipal primary elections.

It never ceases to amaze me that voters turn out in droves for congressional and presidential elections, but when it comes to local races, the voters tend to stay home.  While it’s certainly important to get out and vote for our national officials, I tend to believe that it’s much more important to be involved in the local races, with the candidates and elected officials that are making decisions that impact our daily lives.

In this coming election we’ll be voting for the members of the various municipal governments throughout the state.  Before you dismiss city councils as irrelevant, you should stop and consider what Utah’s city councils have done over the past few years.  It is our municipal governments that are leading the way on issues like equality.  While our state legislature has wasted its time and our money on ridiculous message bills, our city councils have enacted non-discrimination ordinances to provide employment and housing protections to the LGBTQ community.

In Utah it is our local governments that push our legislators to make changes at the state level.  The actions of our cities push issues into the spotlight that might otherwise go unnoticed, and these are the people for whom we’ll be voting in just a few weeks.  It is also important to note that it is from this pool that we can draw our next generation of state legislators, U.S. congress members, and potential presidential candidates.

There are a number of candidates running for municipal office in Utah that deserve notice.  These are everyday people, people like you and me that have volunteered their time and their energy toward making our cities and towns better places to live.  These are people like Tyler Andrus in West Jordan, Charlie Luke in Salt Lake City, Corey Rushton in West Valley City and Alan Anderson in Midvale.  These aren’t professional politicians, they are citizens that care enough about our communities to put themselves through the rigors of a campaign and election in order to have the opportunity to serve the people.

The decisions that these people make may not seem like much in the face of environmental policy, energy, income tax, health care, and war, but these decisions have a much more profound day-to-day impact on our lives and our futures.  These are the decisions about our schools, our streets, our police and fire departments, and the balance our communities strike between business and residential needs.  These are the decisions in which our voices are crucial.

I constantly hear people tell me that their vote doesn’t matter, and so they don’t go out and vote.  Ever hear the term self-fulfilling prophecy?  Even the vote that you don’t cast matters, as it helps to weaken the position of those that share your ideals.  What is even more ironic in this discussion is that those people are the same ones that don’t vote in municipal elections, the elections where votes matter even more, as there are far fewer voters.

Now is our chance to be a part of that difference.  It is our time to get involved and work with these candidates to make our communities better.  It is our time to get to know these people and to let them hear our ideas and our desires for our cities and our futures. It is time to participate, to give better of ourselves and to get better from our representatives.