Local elections are weird for me. My parents are good people, and they always vote in the big, presidential elections, but the thing they never instilled in me was the importance of local elections. Never did my parents train me to be invested in local government.
I don’t solely fault my parents. The truth is a lot of us shrug off local elections even though they directly impact our communities. Likewise, I won’t fault you if you’re not engaged.
It wasn’t until I took an interest in journalism and fishy stuff started happening within my school district while I was in high school that I started to pay attention to these sorts of elections. Lucky for me, that spurred a lasting interest.
I’ve been in Kirksville for four years. While I can’t say I’ve voted in every single election (don’t stone me, please), I feel I’ve been relatively well-involved. I never had someone back home telling me to vote, and you might not either, so I figured I’d step in and tell you: register here and vote.
Maybe you won’t be here your entire life, and that’s okay. But, for now, you reside here. Four years is a long time to complain about something, and there will be decisions made here that will have an effect on you. A prime example? Road infrastructure. Did you know that we will be voting people to City Council, and those are the folks who decide which roads get patched and when?
If you have no other reason to vote, do it because college is a great time to get yourself familiar with local election cycles and the process of voting.
It’s too late to register here for Tuesday’s election, but why not make the change today? If you are registered here, make sure to vote. It seems small, but these are the people who are making decisions that influence your local community.