10 Reasons To Vote

State election authorities project that less than a quarter of the state's eligible voters will cast ballots, absentee and in person, during this year's Primary Election. That is a shame. It means that three-quarters of Missouri 's voters will be passing up the chance to select candidates and set public policies that will affect us for years.

I am a voter, so I will get my say. Will you have yours?

Here are 10 more or less serious reasons to vote on Tuesday, August 3, 2010.

10. For the moral right to complain. If you are eligible to vote, but don't, why would I, or anybody else, listen to you whine!

9. It is your right, earned for you by others. Do you think the 14th and 19th Amendments to the Constitution passed themselves?

8. To make a change. Want more people in public office who share your values?

7. To protect the status quo. Want fewer people in public office who share your values?

6. To cancel out my vote. I have endorsed Susan Montee, Robin Carnahan, Joe Keaveny, Jane Schweitzer, Susan Carlson, Penny Hubbard, and Karla May in primaries this year. I will vote for Prop S and against Prop C. Do you disagree?

5. To send a message. Remind statewide elected officials that the City of St. Louis votes.

4. Make some friends at the polling place. People who vote regularly have more in common with each other (no matter for whom/what issue they vote) than with people who never vote.

3. Meet up with your neighbors. The most involved people in your neighborhood will be voting. Join them.

2. Break a stereotype. Conventional wisdom says that primary voters are old, female, and live in Wards 16, 12, and 23. Really?

1. Every vote counts. Chances are that at least one race in this election will be decided by fewer than a dozen votes.