Reader: Your vote counts even more on local races than national ones

By Michael Roberts Fri., Nov. 2 2012 at 10:27 AM

Yesterday, Westword contributors Josiah M. Hesse and Chris Utterback went head to head over the upcoming election on the question of whether it's worth your time to vote, with Hesse saying no and Utterback saying yes. Below, one reader marks his ballot for Utterback's view by offering an argument with local flavor.

rain writes:

Remember: Don't just vote the top of the ticket. Vote the local races, too. They matter and are often decided by a small number of votes, as the CD2 example above shows.

A single individual's vote may or may not decide a race, but a lot of individuals' votes? That's an election. Or, to give another analogy, no single snowflake is all that special, but together? Now you've got a ski run -- or an avalanche.

For more memorable takes, visit our Comment of the Day archive.

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RobertChase topcommenter

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With regard to the many judges up for a vote on their retention, what should voters consider when voting whether or not to retain any particular judge? Ask yourself whether that judge has stood up against unjust laws, and in particular whether he or she has refused to accept the assignment of drug cases to his or her court. No judges that I am aware of in Colorado have opposed the ongoing outrage of "the land of the free" imprisoning more people than any other nation on Earth, so I suggest that your choice is clear: "NO", to each and every one. Remove all of these fascists from the bench.

If you are called to sit on a jury trying any offense in which a defendant cannot be proven to have done objective harm, I suggest that the verdict of "not guilty" is the only proper one. Vote to acquit! This country is the least free on Earth, if by free one means living free of a jail or prison cell. If we want America ever to be "the land of the free", we need to release every single possible victim of our criminal injustice system who does not pose a genuine threat to public safety, which is to say most of them.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/67/US_incarceration_timeline-clean-fixed-timescale.svg/350px-US_incarceration_timeline-clean-fixed-timescale.svg.png

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/Prisoner_population_rate_world_map.png/500px-Prisoner_population_rate_world_map.png