TWO WEEKS from today is Election Day, but the election has already begun.
Advance voting started last week, and people all over Kansas have already cast their ballots.
Some people may think of this as a second-class election. The big race is missing; the United States will not elect a president for another two years.
But many things will be decided when the ballots are counted on Nov. 7. Here in Kansas, voters will choose a governor to lead the state for the next four years. The state’s four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are in play, as are all of the seats in the Kansas House of Representatives. Kansans will elect an attorney general, an insurance commissioner, a secretary of state and new members of the state board of education.
In Lyon County, voters in one district will choose a new member of the county commission and voters in all districts will answer two important questions:
- Should the county hire a professional administrator to run the day-to-day operations of county government?
- Should the county commission be expanded from three members to five?
If the answer to either of those questions is yes, there will be a big change in county government.
And that is the best part about elections: Voters are given the opportunity, by supporting candidates and issues, to make visible changes in the world.
That is particularly true this year, when voters have real choices to make. In some years, the candidate choices seem to be between Tweedledum and Tweedledummer, the ballot questions a choice between the status quo and more of the same. That is not true this year. In both county questions and in many of the state races, voters are being asked to choose between fundamentally opposed ideas of governance.
For good or ill, voters’ choices this year will make a difference.
Two weeks to go: to speak or to remain silent.