One of the nice things about turning eighteen is that I'll finally get to vote. Unfortunately, since I live in what can be determined as a red county, the only thing I can really help determine is my representative and president. Since I was still seventeen during the Illinois primaries, my representative in Springfield has practically been determined already, and my state senator ran completely unopposed. All other offices lacked Democratic candidates, though there is a Green Party candidate for county auditor. Would I have voted for any? Unlikely, but it still would feel nice to do research and actually make a choice.

Besides those, my district's GOP candidate does have a Democrat opponent, and the new districts set by the General Assembly will make it more challenging for him, but he has been rather sucesful, and so far it doesn't seem like much of a race. Any reservations I had about the GOP candidate I took care of a while ago (I started researching around March), so I'm unlikely to change my mind.

As for president, Mitt Romney is who I'm voting for, but I didn't much care for him during the primaries. Most likely, all the help he'll get from me is a vote and a bumper sticker, since the sticker's free. I'm not going to mention my choice for representative, as it is a little more specific about where I live than I care to let people online know.