Election 2008 Recommendations, Advice & Final Thoughts, Part 4 - The Vote

We continue the series of articles about tomorrow's election. We plan to look at the race for president, key congressional races, ballot issues, and some resources that might help with a voter's choices.
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GETTING DOWN TO VOTE

I hope that this series of Election Eve articles are helpful to you the reader. If you a procrastinator, like me, than maybe the following information will be of assistance to you as well.

1. If you live in Ohio, Ohio Election Central is a great resource that will allow you to get a sample ballot of your county and allow you to do your last minute homework. All you do is enter your zip code. You can print off your sample ballot.

What I did I got an absentee ballot for the first time and I completed it in front of my computer looking up any of the candidates, with whom I was unfamiliar. I completed the ballot going from front to back. I did the important items first then I voted for presidential choices last. This year I feel the most satisfied that overall I made the wisest choices ever.

My dad used to complete the sample ballot provided by the local newspaper and took that in to the voting booth.

2. If you don’t life in Ohio, or even if you do, another helpful resource is David Barton’s WallBuilders' website offers a Christian Voter Guide which will direct you to additional resources in your state. Another useful resource is the American Policy Roundtable’s USAVoter.com. The League of Women Voters has SmartVoter.com which also allows you to type in your zip code and provides you with helpful information.

3. Get informed about particular candidate using the OnTheIssues.com website. This was a key resource as I studied the candidates for my blog articles or identifying where persons stand on the issues. For me personally, if a person record indicates a pro-abortion and/or anti-marriage position, those issues are enough deny him my vote or support.

4. For some of the elected offices or candidates, like local judges or state school board members, you may have to dig further. I found out which of the state school board candidate were endorsed by the Ohio Education Association, for example, which gave me a good indicator NOT to e for that candidate. Use your imagination or creativity in searching for information about candidates. For judicial candidates sometimes local newspapers will provide some information, I searched for information on one of the judicial candidates and one newspaper provided me with enough information to make a decision.

5. Check out http://maps.google.com/vote if you don’t know where your voting location is.

6. Maybe instead of ending with prayer for the candidates and the election it should be the first step in the process. Maybe the first and the last.