By. Neil Williamson, President
The 2006 Disney Movie High School Musical featured a mind numbing 
song called Get’cha Head in the Game. Despite the inane catchiness of the song, it has a solid message for our local 2011 elections.
In our Apathy Increases Voter Value post, The Free Enterprise Forum has already written about the importance of your vote in next Tuesday’s November 8th election.
While 77% of the registered voters are projected to NOT cast ballots this “off-off” year election, how many of the balance will cast knowledgeable votes?
Do you know who you are voting for?
Do you know what issues the candidates agree on?
or where they differ from each other?
If not, why not?
Regular readers know the Free Enterprise Forum is appreciative of all who put themselves up for election. It is a very time consuming and ego challenging thing to do. Elections are about ideas, the candidates have, for the most part, put their ideas out for the voters to see. Have you looked?
The work of an election does not fall completely on the candidates. Do you know where you vote? many polling places have changed due to the census data. Take two minutes right now today and confirm your polling place with the Virginia Board of Elections by clicking here I’ll wait.
OK, now that you know where you are going to vote, the question of who you plan to vote for is of equal importance. In addition to the candidates’ web sites, Facebook pages and advertising there are other sources of information:
- In Charlottesville and Albemarle, you can learn about the candidates through Charlottesville Tomorrow’s 2011 Election Center
- The Greene County Record has candidate biographies in this week’s paper
- The Fluvanna Review asked all the Fluvanna Candidate’s five questions about the future of the County.
- The transcript for the Louisa County Candidate Forum can be found on our blog
- The Nelson County Times has a good overview of the Nelson races.
As a reader of this blog, you already know more about the issues facing local government than the average citizen. You owe it to yourself and your community to continue your education, learn about the candidates AND VOTE.
To paraphrase the late Sy Syms – “An educated Voter is our best citizen”.
Respectfully Submitted,
Neil Williamson, President
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Neil Williamson is the President of The Free Enterprise Forum, a privately funded public policy organization covering the City of Charlottesville as well as Albemarle, Greene, Fluvanna, Louisa and Nelson County. For more information visit the website www.freeenterpriseforum.org
Photo Credits: Disney, New York Daily News
