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The following is addressed to citizens of the United States aged 18 or older.

Please register to vote and please please please actually do vote in this election. I desperately wish I were old enough, because for once I actually dearly want one of the candidates to win. Not just because he's the Democratic nominee, but because I've listened to both sides speak, read up on the issues and where they stand, and know in no uncertain terms who I want as President.

But I can't vote. So PLEASE don't waste your right to do so if you're one of those lucky folks born before November 1990.

The deadline for registration is coming up, at some point in October determined by what state you live in. (It's October 10th in New York.) Google "voter registration deadline" and you'll get a bunch of lists. If you're not registered yet, go do so. If you're registered but going to be in a different state (or country) on November 4th, fill out an absentee ballot form. It's easy. Really it is.

Remember this: if you don't vote, you are not allowed to complain about the results. (Unless of course you aren't even eligible.)

Having trouble deciding? Read up on the issues. Find out where the candidates stand on things, and see who represents you more, or who you think would be best at the helm of the country. Their web sites are a good place to start, if you're lost in the midst of all the election stuff going on. And if you truly can't decide between Obama/Biden and McCain/Palin (if you were debating between them to begin with), find an independent you like better. There's probably someone out there.

And lastly. YOUR VOTE COUNTS. Do not succumb to the allure of "I'm only one person; what does one vote matter?" It matters a lot. A majority is nothing more than a heck of a lot of individual votes added up, and if a lot of people are too lazy or apathetic to vote, that might well affect the outcome.

I wish I could leave this open, in the hope that people would comment on voting rather than starting a flaming debate, but experience has shown that that would not be the case at all. So alas, I must keep this closed, but I encourage civil discussion in other venues.

Mandatory endorsement plug: OBAMA '08

~ ToM