With just over a month before early voting starts for the 2024 general election, it’s a good time to tell readers there’s still time to register to vote if you’re not registered and time to make a change of address if you’ve moved since the last election, in May this year.
For general elections, when there’s a presidential contest voters will decide, we’re always told it’s the most important election of all time.
Perhaps there’s an ultimate truth in that, given the delicate balance that is our democracy. But this time, they really mean it: This is the most important election in U.S. history.
We caught a glimpse after the 2020 election just how challenging maintaining the peace and prosperity of our nation can be. Angry protestors were urged to go to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to “take back your government.” Suddenly, the peaceful transition of power established by President George Washington in 1797 upon leaving office was shattered and destroyed. With our own eyes, we saw it happen — watching it unfold on TV, horrified.
What happens in this general election could very well decide a fate for the nation much larger and more significant than any other past U.S. election.
But it’s always important to vote, to be part of this great American experiment, in national, state and local elections.
So much is at stake.
In November, Ohio voters will decide on another reform — ending gerrymandering — with a statewide vote on the Citizens Not Politicians amendment. It’s an extremely important vote.
School board races, councils, commissions, county offices and tax initiatives (when was the last time there was a tax repeal on which to vote) all will appear on your November ballot.
If you’re already registered to vote, please be sure to vote. If you’re not registered, get registered and be sure to vote. If you have any questions about your voter eligibility or if you want information about voting via an absentee ballot, mail-in voting or early voting call your county elections board office.