Our View / An unnecessary reminder: GO, VOTE! NOW!!
We made it. Election Day. Finally. The vile attacks, the filthy accusations from those being intentionally dishonest, the misrepresentations, the ugliness — so much ugliness, months and months and even years and years of ugliness — are all over. At least for another election cycle.
Yes, we made it. It's Election day.
Now it's up to us, each of us on our own, in a private spot at our polling place, with a ballot in front of us and a pen in hand, filling in those little eggs and determining who our next government leaders will be — or will continue to be. We have the power. We're the deciders.
Voting is our duty and our responsibility as citizens and as active members of our communities. If eligible to vote, we have a critical say in how our government looks, who runs it, and how it operates. By voting, we help shape the very places we call home.
It's hard to fathom anyone allowing their voice to go silent on an Election Day.
Yet too many of us have. In the last presidential election, for example, more than 250 million Americans were eligible to vote, but only 62.8% did so, according to the Pew Research Center . That turnout of 154.8 million voters, while a record, still meant that only about three-fifths of those eligible to vote decided for the whole.
The world is run by those who show up. We've all heard that. Never is it more true than on Election Day when our apathy means abandoning our responsibility and sacrificing our right to complain until the next time around.
Few elections are more engaging than those featuring presidential tilts, like today's does. It's Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris versus Republican former President Donald Trump. As if anyone needed the reminder.
Up and down today's ballot is intrigue and drama. In Duluth, there are also races for the U.S. House (Rep. Pete Stauber, a Republican, versus Jen Schultz, the Democratic challenger, if a reminder is really needed there, too), U.S. Senate (Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar versus Republican Royce White), the 6th Judicial District (Gunnar Johnson versus Shawn Reed), St. Louis County Board (Commissioner Ashley Grimm versus Janet Kennedy to represent western Duluth), and several Minnesota legislative races, including the districts representing eastern Duluth (Rep. Liish Kozlowski, DFL, versus Shawn Savela, R) and western Duluth (Pete Johnson, DFL, versus Mark McGrew, R, to replace Rep. Liz Olson, who stepped down).
Will first-time voters turn the tide today like they did in 1998 in Minnesota when independent Jesse Ventura "shocked the world" and won the governor's race? Will the Minnesota DFL hold onto its trifecta control of St. Paul? Will the Minnesota GOP continue to turn long-blue Northeastern Minnesota red? So many questions. So much drama. Who wouldn't want to be part of it?
No one in Duluth or statewide should need any motivation to get to their polling place today, before it closes at 8 p.m. That's assuming they haven't already cast ballots via early voting. Minnesota, after all, election after election, is a national leader in participating, in being engaged, and in playing an active role not only in giving our government its direction but in shaping our communities as a result.
We recognize here in the Gopher State that voting is a precious privilege. We know that in the early days of our nation, most states allowed only wealthy white men to cast ballots; that, over decades, many courageous individuals, most notably women and people of color, fought hard for and even died to win the right to vote for all of us; and that going to the polls is not to be taken for granted but is instead a precious opportunity, one denied to too many citizens in too many other nations.
Voting is a right that demands to be exercised today and every Election Day.
We made it.
Finally.
The ugliness of the campaigns is over. Now it's up to us.
