Why

It’s important to vote for so many reasons. In the last few weeks of hype, anxiety, enthusiasm, and aggression that fill the pages and the airwaves all attention has been on the presidential race. If you listen for long enough about Virginia, Florida, Ohio, Indiana and other deciding states, you could almost believe that your vote in the safely Democratic state of Maryland might not matter. However, there are many reasons why it matters for you to vote – even if you are unlikely to change who the next president is.

Let’s start with “If everyone thought like that”, well, it’s self explanatory…

Then you can add in the importance of the degree to which the next president wins, and how that will affect their mandate once they’re in power. But it’s also important because there’s more to the ballot than the next president!

There are two constitutional amendments in Maryland to vote on today – whether or not to allow slot machines, and whether or not to support an amendment that will allow Marylanders to use absentee ballots, vote outside of their district, and to implement early voting.

In addition there are other races for elected positions, in St. Mary’s County these include a contested position for representative in congress, for which Steny Hoyer, Collins Bailey and Darlene Nicholas are running, and the Board of Education At-Large seat, vied for by Marilyn Crosby and Gary Kessler.

For more on the tough questions on the ballot see Pete Hurrey's article.

Finally, we should mention rights and responsibilities and their concurrent operation. With your many rights comes a civic obligation to participate in the democratic process. For some groups this right to vote has been a hard-won battle. The era of suffragettes and civil rights is not so far behind us, and we ought to remember the women and men who dedicated their lives to fighting for universal suffrage. Surely we have a moral obligation to remember them by exercising the rights that a previous generation won for us. 

How

If you didn’t vote before you made it to work this morning, there’s still time. Polls will be open until 8 p.m., and everyone in line at that time will have the chance to cast their ballot in this historic election. Maryland law also grants citizens up to two hours of paid leave during the day to cast their votes. Your employer may wish to specify the two hours you take to go to the polls and may require proof of voting.

You can view a sample ballot for St. Mary’s County here. Familiarizing yourself with the ballot will not only help you to determine how you wish to vote on each of the questions, but will also help you to vote quickly and keep down lines at the polling places. To view a demonstration of how to vote click here.  If you’re unsure of where to vote you can find your polling place by entering your address on this site http://www.elections.state.md.us/voting/where.html.