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Early voters have a choice of voting on the electronic voting system or voting a paper ballot.
You can check with your local county elections office if they have made arrangements for early voting. Go to the California Secretary of State website ( www.sos.ca.gov) to get the complete contact information of your local county elections official.
And for naturalized Filipinos who are registered voters, just a reminder. This is not the Philippines where representatives from candidates can guard the entryways and appeal to your “better sense” and vote for their candidates. Voters can in no way be pressured into voting a certain way by representatives from all recognized parties, or should be persuaded to vote in exchange for monetary compensation. Any elections irregularities should be immediately reported to the local county elections office or should be reported to the California Secretary of State office’s toll-free hotline (1-800-345-VOTE).
If you are undecided as to who to vote for, and how to vote on certain Propositions, the California Secretary of State website has a Voter Information Guide (VIG) that can be viewed online or downloaded to your computer. The VIG features information on statewide measures in the ballot, including the Propositon’s summary and analysis, as well as arguments for and against the measure. Aside from the English version, the VIG has been translated into six other languages, namely Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese.
Online, the VIG features a 250-word statement (online only) from each of the six presidential candidates (Barrack Obama of the Democratic Party, John McCain of the Republican Party, Alan L. Keyes of the American Independent Party, Cynthia A. McKinney of the Green Party, Bob Barr of the Libertarian Party and Ralph Nader of the Peace and Freedom Party).
For those wishing an easier, more digestible version of the VIG, a quick reference guide is available on the website which summarizes each Proposition and arguments for and against the measure into one page.
Suffrage, or the right to vote, is guaranteed in the US Constitution to its citizens, either born here or naturalized. Indeed, if you are a registered voter, it would be a shame not to exercise such a right as many have died and suffered to make voting in America more inclusive, starting with the time when slavery was abolished in the US in 1787 and when citizens, regardless of race or color, were granted the right to vote almost a full century later by virtue of the Fifteenth Amendment.
And just to stress a point: voting allows you to express your opinions. Whether you vote Democratic, Republican or Independent, you are participating in a process which determines how US laws will be made and amended; what kind of officials, including judges, will occupy important positions in government (by virtue of appointment by the President of the United States); how public policies will be crafted by lawmakers; how money is spent by the government; and so forth.
Voting also, in some cases, instills discipline and awareness from politicians, both in the national and local levels. While your one vote may seem inconsequential, when it is joined by others, it becomes a strong opinion that may be noticed by elected officials, and can become a guide for them as to what policies his or her constituents support or not.
Whether your candidate wins or loses, or a Proposition you are supporting passes or gets defeated, the most important thing is participating in the elections. You can say all you want about laws not being crafted to the needs of the citizenry, or not having a voice in the scheme of things, but these amount to nothing if you do not cast your vote on Election Day.
The message is, “Get out and vote!” In doing so, you may see yourself become part of history, and become part of the machinery that makes America and its democracy a continuing success. (www.asianjournal.com)
(Published October 31, 2008 p.sf2 NC)
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3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."
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