Thoughts Following This Election

My husband and I try to research and vote in as many of races for "minor" state and local offices as we can--offices like State Board of Education, Comptroller, and Railroad Commissioner (an office which in Texas has nothing to do with railroads and lots to do with regulating the oil industry).  We know these offices can affect our lives as much as the "more important" positions like Governor and Senator, and we know that less people vote on them, so we figure our votes count even more on these than on the "big" races.

What's frustrating to me this election is realizing how many of these "minor"  offices are decided by people who vote straight party line, when most of those offices don't even have anything to do with what a lot of those people voted straight party line about.  For instance, I'm Pro-Life, so that means I often vote Republican.  But when it comes to things like Agricultural Commissioner or Railroad Commissioner, their duties don't include anything that would affect that issue. 

My husband and I are watching several of these "minor" races and noticing that in our state the Republican candidates are winning by almost exactly the same margin on all of these lesser known positions (and that's not true for the more well known offices like Governor and Senator).  It makes me wonder if most of the democrats in these positions are loosing solely because of party line votes from people who, in general, don't even know what the office does or what the candidates stand for (a lot of them at least).  Most of the people who don't vote party line just don't vote on these.

It saddens me to think that because of party line voting some qualified and capable candidates who are running for the right reasons might loose to candidates who are corrupt, inexperienced, misguided, or who are just seeking this position as a stepping stone to another "more important" one.


So, my challenge to you for the NEXT election is this:

1. Don't vote straight party line!  At very least if you don't know anything about an elected position and whether the republican or democratic (or green, libertarian, etc) qualities you care about are important in that position, don't vote on that particular race.
2. Do some research on at least one elected position you know nothing about, and next election, do research on the candidates, and vote on the race for that election.

Read more about the affects of Straight-Ticket Voting:
In November, Straight Ticket Votes Decide Winner (Texas)