Make Sure to Vote !

I finally back from a wonderful trip at FNCE (Food Nutrition Conference & Expo) in Washington, DC! I will be posting all of the fun, exciting things that I did at FNCE in a later blog post but today I want to stress the importance of exercise your chance to vote particularly during this early voting registration week! I was very happy to have waited 1 1/2 hours on line to vote and I was not going to get out of line because the wait was too long. I knew that people sacrifice theirs to be able vote so I knew that I need to make time by any means necessary to vote.

These mid-term elections are so very important and there are no excuses for not voting. Make sure that you start to plan to vote by checking out where you need to vote for early voting. Here is the link https://www.vote.org/early-voting-calendar/ to find out the nearest location, time and date to vote and what you need in order to vote.

I have heard that some people feel that their vote does not matter which is further from the truth. The Military One Source website - https://www.militaryonesource.mil/-/don-t-just-guess-know-how-to-become-a-responsible-voter explains below why your vote does matter!

Make sure that you know yourself and find out the issues that are important to you. Think about what concerns you – issues like education, civil rights, international relations, health care, religious beliefs and equality. Once you determine what matters most to you, seek a candidate who shares those values.

Look for candidate qualities you can support. Research the candidates' platforms and try to figure out what each one plans to do while in office. With a little investigation – like checking candidates’ websites or attending forums – you can feel good about casting your vote for someone who will support your values.

Be skeptical. Candidates sometimes say what voters want to hear. Try to determine how they plan to accomplish the goals they promote in the campaign. If they have been in office already, check out their votes on past issues.

Find information from diverse sources. Don't limit your research to websites, talk shows or news outlets that support one candidate. Find outlets that seem neutral or unbiased. Check out outlets representing the other side, so you can consider topics from different perspectives. Limiting your research to just one source may restrict your understanding of the issues.