November 6, 2006

Good Morning! Tomorrow is time to vote if you didn’t get one of the new mail-in ballots. Somehow I always feel a bit irresponsible or fraudulent in my voting. It seems that on every ballot there is some amendment or election that leaves me thinking “huh?” or “who are these people?” This year there seemed to be many of those on the ballot; perhaps classes have allowed the election to sneak up on me or it may have been the attention paid to the congressional seats. I may need to be more responsible and subscribe to a newspaper again; the national news on the Internet doesn’t seem to cover these state amendments. However, when I mail in my ballot today I will vote against allowing more gambling in Nebraska. I realize that we cannot legislate behavior, but at the same time we should not vote more opportunity to sin! I wonder how many races tomorrow will be decided for better or worse by voters like me who know little or nothing about the people in the race? Should I vote on the board of directors for ESU 13 when I don’t know any of the people listed? In that case it might be best to abstain. That is difficult to do since I have been trained since childhood to answer every question on those fill-in-the-ovals tests. This election pointed out to me the need for us as Christians to speak and email our views on candidates and amendments. We should have research and discussion well before the election arrives, especially the presidential election coming up in 2008.
One thing that impressed me about one point of view’s efforts on one ballot amendment, 423, was the fellow out on Sunday evening delivering flyers to every doorstep on our street. I like to see that kind of effort by a candidate or supporter/detractor of an amendment. If I am not mistaken, our current state senator, Philip Erdman, defeated the incumbent by just such an effort. I am thinking that I can make some effort to help you out by finding information on candidates and issues, and then posting that to another blog. It’s too late for this election, but I’ll see what I can do before the next one.
Let us not forget the one thing that we can do in every election though, and it is not voting that I speak of, but rather it is prayer. Before you fill out that ballot, and I certainly encourage you to do so, we can pray for God’s guidance in casting our vote. We may not know everything about every possible selection, but God does and He is not our last resort, but our first!

God be with you as you vote this week.

Bucky