Our votes in the Presidential election won't matter, given that for electoral purposes (if nothing else) Austin is part of Texas. (Though here's an interesting tidbit: in neighboring Williamson County, which is far more conservative than Austin, a third of registered voters cast early ballots [a record], and Kerry was leading based on early voting!)
But there are local elections where they might matter. Students, especially, can make a difference, since I'm sure many of you are in the relevant local districts for State House races:
Vote for Mark Strama over Jack Stick
Vote for Patrick Rose over Alan Askew
Vote for Kelly White over Todd Baxter
Todd Baxter, in particular, is an embarrassment to civilization. Please, help get rid of him. He snuck in to a usually Democratic seat with dirty tricks in 2002. There is a good chance he will go down this year.
Austin is now part of three different U.S. House districts. If you have the opportunity to vote for Lloyd Doggett, an honorable Congressman, do so. If you're in my part of Austin, write in S-A-D-U-N, that is, Lorenzo Sadun, the UT math professor who is running a protest campaign against our gerrymandered district. Although we are probably doomed to get the Republican, a strong showing for Sadun may have other value, in terms of sending a message to the courts who will be reconsidering the constitutionality of the gerrymandering in the coming months.
In the Presidential race, I will probably vote for Ralph Nader, since he is the only candidate who takes rational and humane positions on the real issues. In 2000, 10% of Austinites voted for Nader and, as I recall, Al Gore still beat Bush in Austin. Were that all the country more like Austin...
UPDATE: Just a clarification for any Austin readers: you will need to write-in Nader, as with Sadun, since he didn't make the ballot. Having just voted, let me note that there are some Libertarians running against Republicans for the Court of Criminal Appeals, one of the most reactionary courts in the country. The Libertarians are sure to do a better job of defending rule of law and liberty values than the Republicans. There are no Democrats in some of these races. I voted for the Libertarians in those cases.
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