Vote like your future depended on it
Inter Lake editorial
The day has come to put all the rubbish aside, take pen in hand, and make choices.
Montanans have been bombarded, it seems, by a political hailstorm the likes of which hasn't been seen in this state ever before. And the pelting gained in its ferocity over the past few weeks.
It was somewhat predictable that this would be a particularly busy and nasty campaign season; the clouds had been gathering on the horizon for months, even a year, before the storm arrived. But the sheer volume of back-to-back, often repetitive radio and television advertising became nearly relentless.
It has been especially nasty in the Senate race, with innuendo, gossip and name-calling buzzing through the airwaves. If you add up all the broadcasting ads, the campaigns for Republican Sen. Conrad Burns and his Democratic challenger, Jon Tester, have probably accused the other candidate of lying hundreds of times. But it's no better in other hotly contested races elsewhere in the country, where nastiness has prevailed. One has to wonder why a normal person would ever, ever subject themselves to the miseries of a high-profile political race.
The good news is that some local races have been mostly civil, most notably the Flathead County commission race between Democrat Mark Crowley and Republican Dale Lauman, a decided contrast to some earlier county commissioner elections.
And we may also be heartened by the continued interest of the public. We have run dozens and dozens of letters to the editor about candidates and issues. Those letters, plus the candidate profiles featured in our newspaper and others, provide voters with a firm basis on which to vote, plus we have all received mailer pamphlets, seen candidates on our doorsteps, and taken multiple phone calls from Democrat and Republican campaign machines.
A simple poll in the Inter Lake newsroom revealed that nearly everybody had been called and urged to vote by phone-banking campaigns more than a couple of times. That struck us as unusual for a mid-term election in Montana. But it is indicative of how important this election will be, from state legislative seats and local judges all the way up to the Big One - the widely watched and much anticipated race between Burns and Tester, which could actually decide control of the Senate.
Voters who sit out this election truly are missing big, clear choices that will steer county, state and federal government. With all the prodding and poking aimed at encouraging voter turnout, it's hard to imagine how a voter could miss going to the polls today.
It's a clich/, but it holds true this time around: Voters who sit out this election will have little grounds to complain if the politicians they don't like get elected or the ballot issues they oppose are approved.
Do your duty, and vote.