VOTE

[Brett Dikeman]

Need something to do, and live in the US?  Register to vote- and then 
vote on election day.

Why?

-Because democracy is not a spectator sport.
-Because no matter how much money corporations dump into the 
political process, only YOU can vote.
-Because people in the third world with little or no education manage 
to vote despite gun-toting hoodlums and standing in lines for hours 
upon hours.  What's your excuse?
-Because the rest of the world judges us by our leaders, seeing as we 
are a democracy.

A slew of states have even set up early voting:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/daily/graphics/earlyvoting_082504.html

If you're in Massachusetts (and a number of us are- it used to be the 
#1 state in the registry!) http://www.votinginfo.info/ has lots of 
info, and even a MA Voter's Rights statement to print out and take 
with you to the polls.

   Don't vote on soundbites, whoever brought in the most pork, how 
many ads they've run, promises they make, or how many babies they've 
kissed.  Do the research on how well your views are represented; the 
web makes it easy, just watch your sources carefully.  Curious who's 
really aligned with your views?  There are even a bunch of 
'selectors' that ask you issue questions, then rate who you most 
closely match. Check out:
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2004/01/01_newsroom_selectapres/


...but there are several others.  Plenty of other stuff as close as a 
search in your favorite web search engine.

Registered and planning to vote?  Good.  Harass every family member, 
friend and coworker until they register and swear to you they'll 
actually go to the polls come election day.

Already done that?  Fantastic.  Maybe you can help out with these:
http://votewatch.us/
http://www.electionprotectionvolunteer.org/electionprotection/index.cfm

...because we should probably run our elections cleanly and reliably 
before we start preaching to the world about democracy.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled Audi content.

Brett
-- 
"There are four boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, 
jury, ammo.
   Use in that order, starting now."  -Ed Howdershelt
http://www.users.cloud9.net/~brett/