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You are here: Home / Opinion / Be heard by your government

Be heard by your government

October 10, 2018 by Andersonian Staff

On Nov. 6, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and one-third of the U.S. Senate seats will be up for grabs.

In a democratic republic, where leaders are elected to make decisions on our behalf, it is incredibly important for those leaders to be held accountable to the electorate.

The only way to hold them accountable is to vote them out if they represent us poorly and vote them back in if they represent us fairly. This is the most effective way that we the people can ensure that our political class is responsive to our will.

Of course, everyone has a different idea of what constitutes poor or fair. But how can we expect our ruling class to represent us well if people from the same demographic are the only ones who are voting? That’s why it’s important for everyone to vote, especially those who typically would not. Otherwise, the small voices will be drowned out amidst a sea of louder voices.

In addition to the hundreds of congressional seats up for grabs this fall, there will be a whole host of local elections taking place in your district. Local government is just as, if not more, important than federal elections.

While decisions made at the federal level can impact your life indirectly, local policies often have a greater impact on your day-to-day life.

The members of your city council make decisions about the roads you drive on, the schools you attend and the spending of your tax dollars on projects in your city. Your sheriff works tirelessly to keep you safe by making decisions about how your county is patrolled and how their department’s budget is spent.

Don’t you want to know who these elected officials are and have a say in the decisions they are making on your behalf? If your answer is, ‘Yes,’ then we have good news for you. If you vote in the midterm elections, you can!

Remember to also check for special elections taking place in your district. A special election is an election being held to fill a seat that became vacant between elections, and they typically occur at different times than general elections, so it’s important to keep track of them.

For college students, there is more than one option when it comes to voting in the midterms. You can vote either in elections taking place in your hometown or, if you live on campus, in elections taking place in the city in which you attend college. To do this, you must first change your registration.

In-person voting times and locations vary between districts. Oct. 29 is the deadline for mail-in ballot applications in the state of Indiana.

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Filed Under: Opinion

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The Andersonian, the student newspaper of Anderson University, Anderson, Ind., maintains this website. As a matter of institutional policy, the University administration does not review or edit Andersonian content prior to publication. The student editors are responsible for the content. While the administration recognizes the role of the student press on a college campus and in journalism education, the views expressed in the Andersonian are not necessarily those of Anderson University.

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