|Stepping up onto soap box for a moment|
As we approach elections in St. Tammany Parish , I am reminded of how many of our fellow community members will let this day pass as any other, too busy in their day to day lives to worry about “all this political nonsense”.
YOU HAVE A VOICE – USE IT!
As quoted from the Louisiana Secretary of State’s website :
Voting is one of our most sacred rights as Americans. The Secretary of State encourages Louisianians to:
vote because it is your right;
vote to ensure your voice is heard;
vote to make a better state for yourself and your family; and
voting is one of the most powerful rights that a citizen has, and voter participation is crucial for an effective, truly representative government.
Of all the elections out there, the local and parish elections will effect us in our day to day lives the most! As an example, take the St. Tammany Parish Coroner’s Race in 2014. Preston won 10,007 of the 17,325 votes cast, or 58 percent OF THE VOTES CAST.
Playing the what if game, ST. Tammany Parish has roughly 245,829 people (see reference). Let’s pretend that only 50% are of voting age, so we are looking at approximately 123,000 people that could have voted. The Coroner’s race only pulled the attention of 17,325 votes. That would mean that approximately 14% of our voters choose to make the decision for the rest of us.
What part of this percentage are you?
The “decision maker” – 14%
or
the “this isn’t my problem” – 86%
I would rather try and fail, then to never have tried at all. – William F. O’Brien
|Stepping down off of soap box now|
As a technology advocate and a stringent believer in voting (can you tell?), I feel that we have been very fortunate in Louisiana, to have a Secretary of State, Tom Schedler, who is staying current with the times and has offered a very nice app called Geaux Vote (see my original post here)
You can download the app:
For Apple Users
For Android Users
You may also find the St. Tammany Parish Registrar of Voters’ Website helpful.
See you at the voting booth.
*please note, that I am not receiving compensation for anything contained in this post. These are my own thoughts on the subject