What's your excuse?

In the good old US of A, Nov. 7 is an election day. Since this is not a presidential election year, voter turnout is expected to be down. Of course, with the decline in voter turnout over the last 40 years, even during an election year there are not many people at the polling places.

What's your excuse?

You don't know enough about the candidates or the issues. Well, you have Internet access and you can read so go do a google search for your local election information, do a search for the candidates campaign pages, and read what they have to say.

You don't like any of the candidates. Guess what - sometimes there are great politicians out there that stir our souls. But most often, it's the lesser of the two evils. If you can't decide, go to each candidates home page, and vote for the one that tosses FEWER insults at the opponent.

You are too busy. Well of course you are. This is 2006 and everyone is "too busy." In some countries, people have to wait in line for hours to vote. At least at my polling place, I usually only have to wait a few minutes. Of course, that's because nobody else is there.

As a woman, when think about not voting, I think Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others, and all the time and effort they put into the Suffrage movement. What a slap in the face to these women for us to say we are "too busy." Heck, they didn't even have electric washing machines and microwaves.