Blog #277: VOTE!

Today was the first Tuesday in November, or as I should more accurately say, Election Day!

Even though it's an off-year (no presidential or midterm elections), there were still local elections, which are still incredibly important to partake in. In fact, in a lot of ways, local elections can have a bigger impact on your day-to-day life than a presidential or midterm election. (Think traffic regulations and parking tickets, recycling programs, police and public safety, public transportation— or a lack thereof, public school quality, etc.)

So, even though we weren't initially sure how to vote today, Ally and I did some research to make our decisions about who we would cast a ballot for in Sioux City's race for mayor, city council, and school board. After ten minutes on Google, we felt we'd gathered enough information on the candidates to make our own informed decision, and we headed to our polling location!

After almost not being allowed to vote (thank you Iowa and your restrictive voter ID laws and also the federal government for not making Election Day a national holiday so the only poll staffers are untrained and technologically-unfamiliar retirees doing a good deed), we quickly filled out the short ballot and claimed our "I Voted" stickers with pride.

Naturally, we spent more time trying to get a quality selfie of us with our stickers than we spent actually voting, but that's beside the point. What matters is that we voted, and you should too.