Between The Lines: Don't Let Negative Politics Steal Your Vote

Two more days.

That's all that remain in what seems like an interminable election season.

All those advertising dollars, spent at record levels for and against candidates, have so saturated the airwaves we're all anxious to have the ever-present messages gone.

Nevertheless, no amount of frustration about the way the campaigns have been conducted can cancel the importance of the upcoming elections.

They still matter because the outcome will impact all of us. The decisions made Tuesday by those who bother to vote will help define government at national, state and local levels for at least two years and sometimes for four or six years.

Voters make the decisions on election day. Come January, when all these officeholders start their terms, they'll be making decisions for your town, your county, your state and your nation.

That should be incentive enough to choose them carefully.

Arkansas voters will name a U.S. senator, a governor, a lieutenant governor, an attorney general, a secretary of state, an auditor, a land commissioner and a treasurer as well as decide five different ballot issues.

Voters in each of the state's four congressional districts will choose a U.S. representative. Then there are the many elections for state legislative seats for county offices, for quorum courts and constables, for city councils and for local ballot issues.

The list is long and, regardless of the number of voters who turn out, someone will win all those offices. All of the issues will pass or not, again regardless of the number voting.

For a while now, the emphasis from the political parties has been on their respective ground games, each intended to turn out voters favorable to their candidates.

If you haven't figured it out yet, neither party wants you to vote if you're committed to the other party's candidates. Each is mining for votes to help their own people win.

In fact, part of the effect of this pervasive negative campaigning is to turn off voters. It works even if it doesn't send someone to the polls to vote against the candidate being maligned. The theory is that if you disgust prospective voters enough, they'll decide voting isn't worth their time.

Something certainly turns off eligible voters each election season. Just look at the numbers.

In 2012, a presidential election year, 66 percent of Arkansas' registered voters actually voted. That was 1.08 million votes cast from 1.62 million registered voters. The rest stayed away from the polls.

The numbers in 2010, a midterm election, were worse. They are historically worse in midterms than in presidential election years, which is why so many people have been preaching the turnout message for these midterm elections.

In 2010, fewer than 48 percent of Arkansas' 1.64 million registered voters turned out, casting just 780,000 votes. That means more than half of registered voters sat out the 2010 general election.

The majority didn't rule. The majority of those who cared to vote ruled.

There's one other number of note. The number of registered voters in each year came from more than 2.2 million Arkansans of voting age, many of whom could have registered but didn't. That means about 28 percent of those eligible to vote in 2010 even bothered. How's that for majority rule?

While it is way too late to register to vote in this election, there is no real excuse for those who are registered not to vote.

These may be midterm elections but they are unusually important ones. The U.S. Senate race alone demands attention, given that the outcome will impact the balance of power between the parties.

But the races for governor and attorney general and all those other statewide offices matter, too, as do all the district- and local-level races. These decisions will be pivotal to how state and local governments impact the lives of everyday Arkansans.

For those who haven't already voted, these two last days offer two different opportunities. Monday is the last day for early voting at designated sites in each county. On Tuesday, voters will have to go to the polls, which open at 7:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m.

To find your polling place and confirm that you are registered to vote, go online to the secretary of state's office at www.voterview.org.

A link on the site will show you a sample ballot for your precinct, which will allow you to review the candidates and issues and prepare to vote.

Whoever you are, whatever party you favor, go vote. Don't leave the decisions to others. Let something closer to the real majority rule.

BRENDA BLAGG IS A FREELANCE COLUMNIST AND LONGTIME JOURNALIST IN NORTHWEST ARKANSAS.

Commentary on 11/02/2014

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