Editorial: All politics start local — so vote on Tuesday
Share this post:
Here it is again: Time to go to the polls. Time to do your duty. Time to cast your ballot.
Doesn’t it seem like we just did this?
Well, we did, but while presidential races like the 2020 contest and its seeming four-year march to the ballot box get all of the attention, they are not the most important thing we do on those regularly scheduled twice-a-year gatherings. They are just the showiest.
In 2021, the people are faced with a much less ballyhooed slate of offices. There is no president, no governor. There isn’t a congressman or U.S. senator on the ballot. While there are a few people vying for the odd legislative seat left empty, such as for Jeff Pyle who left the state Legislature for health reasons in March, most of the offices are the ones we interact with much more often.
It is a municipal year, one of those where-the-rubber-meets-the-road contests where you can run into the people you vote for at the grocery store because they live just around the corner.
That might make them seem less important. They are not.
Municipal years are about the daily decisions made in your community. It is when the people who will actually decide about a new school building are selected and when the district attorney who will decide which cases to prosecute is chosen.
It is also always a year with lower turnout.
Every election is important, whether a primary like Tuesday’s or a general like the one down the road in November. Every election is your opportunity to be heard, and every election is your responsibility to speak.
And this time, it is truly everyone.
Primaries in Pennsylvania are party politics at its peak. Democrats pick their candidate. Republicans pick theirs. Others don’t get a chance to play. But there are ballot questions on this year’s ticket. The state is literally asking the people to tell them what they want.
Do you want to change the way state emergencies are declared or maintained? Do you believe fire and EMS companies should be able to secure loans? Should there be a constitutional amendment in Pennsylvania that protects a person’s rights regarding race or ethnicity?
These are issues that can and will affect every Pennsylvanian, and everyone should vote on them.
There were 6.9 million votes cast in Pennsylvania in November 2020. That was how many people cared enough about the future to step up and be heard. It is unlikely that many will appear at polling stations on Tuesday.
But they should.