My voting results - Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Today is an exciting day for me, as I'll be wrapped up with all the information about Election Day and inundated with the results. But for me, voting wasn't nearly as exciting for the top of the ticket as others, since I live in a died-in-the-wool Red state.

The population of South Dakota is roughly about 730,000, much of it made up of senior citizens, farmers and ranchers, and those who rarely if ever travel outside the state. That makes for a very conservative constituency.

Of course voters here are not conservative with all their votes - for President they want a conservative who will not send their tax dollars to everyone else, but for Congress, South Dakotans tend to vote for Democracts. Why? Because they seem to know how to get the money into the state, or at least that's the belief. Our gubernatorial campaigns tend to always go to Republican candidates as well, who always outspend the Democratic rivals by 3 or 4 times as much.

So I knew, casting my ballot for Obama and Biden today, that likely my vote would not swing this state Blue, but knowing that at least our neighbors to the north might swing for Obama today made me feel better.

At my polling place there were maybe half a dozen people. I walked right up to the table and had just enough time to take my driver's license out when it was my turn to be "checked" off the list.

While waiting in line I heard someone in front of me say something about how few people were there. One of the election workers commented, however, that once school was out, it would be "really bad", to which I quipped "No, it will be really GOOD!" Everyone laughed and agreed that a high turnout is actually a very good thing.

We still have paper ballots here, so once I was marked off the list I grabbed mine and headed to the first available open polling booth, of which I had many to choose from. Holding pencil to paper, I made my choices on either side of the ballot. It went pretty quickly since I had already scoped out the sample ballot the previous week, and knew exactly how I would vote on each issue.

Then I stood and watched as the election worker dropped my ballot into the metal box, and off I went. Luckily today I didn't have to look at the myriad of political signs as my polling location is a neighborhood church, so maybe people are a bit more considerate than at the elemetary schools where I saw signs plastered nearly as thickly as they could be.

As I drove away from the polling location I began contemplating the fruition of this election year, and analyzing how things have changed in the 20 or so years since I've been part of the voting public. What I learned this year about voters is something that perhaps I always knew, but didn't want to admit. Namely that most voters truly just don't have a clue. I have to wonder, is it safe for us to leave ballot initiative and important common good decisions in the hands of voters?

You see I have always had this assumption (or maybe hope) that voters would take at least five minutes to read about ballot initiatives before they go off to vote. Everyone knows about the presidential candidates, and even Congressional candidates are typically well recognized, but it seems often that people are not aware when they get to their voting places that there are other things on the ballot to consider.

For South Dakota there were several initiatives on the ballot including one to ban abortions, one that would repeal term limits for state legislators, a measure to make short selling illegal in our state, and one about a constitutional amendment that still provides only 5 cents a mile reimbursement to legislators who travel to the state capital to perform their duties.

What began to trouble me this year was when I discussed these initatives with an older friend, who informed me "just vote No to everything". When I asked him how in the world he came up with that, he simply stated "I'm 71 years old, and in my experience, change is bad, and leaving things alone is better. You're safer that way."

Wow, no kidding! I had to believe that if this guy believed it, there had to be others. How many voters like this can a system obsorb, and still provide a useful referrendum on issues that are truly significant to the electorate? How long will it take before this type of voting "rule" results in serious disadvantages to more than a small number of individuals?

Let us hope that our democracy can survive more of these voters, at least until, we hope, voters begin to realize the singificance of their vote. In this new election generation, all I can hope for is a society in which people take the time to know how their vote will effect themselves and others, and will vote based on what is "the best" for the common good, and not based on emotions, guessing, and single issues that have nothing to do with how well a law might be, or a candidate may perform, but for the good of everyone.

That is the America I dream about for my children, and our country's future.You don't have to agree with me on all of the issues, but when you do vote, at least take the time to know the truth about what and whom you are supporting.