In about a month, the U.S. midterm elections will take place nationwide. With 37 Senate, 435 House, and 37 Governor spots up for grabs, the American citizens (yep… you!) will be in charge of determining who will fill those seats.

“But, I’m in college!” you exclaim. “How am I supposed to vote when I’m not even at home?”

Luckily, the whole process is pretty simple. Yes, you will be required to fill out a form, tongue that strip of sticky nastiness on an envelope, and pop that bad boy in the mail. But, that’s about it. Here you can find all the information you need to obtain and send in an absentee ballot.

There are many reasons why the midterms as a whole are important. Also, many races are important. But, it’s not an election without the issues. What do Americans want? What do the varying states want?

This year, the three principal issues of the election will be the economy, the deficit, and healthcare. They’re all extraordinarily complex subjects, so it’s important to objectively understand what’s going on with each topic before heading to the booth. Read More »

It’s been a while since a turned 18 and became legal, but I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I have never cast a vote — not for a local, state, or national election. My first opportunity to vote was the midterm elections in 2006, and I just wasn’t informed enough about the House and Senate to make a smart decision. So I didn’t.

The other thing that paralyzed me, and that made me think it wouldn’t matter if I voted even in the presidential election, was the electoral college. I’m from good old Massachusetts — you know, the first state to legalize gay marriage, the so-blue-we-don’t-even- see-the-color-red state, the most liberal state in the union. There is never a contest about who wins our state’s votes. In fact, the politicians don’t even try; in the last election, I didn’t see a single presidential campaign ad.

So why bother voting? My vote amounts to a spit in the wind, and as long as we’re not talking about national popular vote as an option, things are going to stay that way. Still, though, I felt a renewed urge to cast my vote this year, because more than ever it seems like a year when a tremendous amount is at stake. Like hundreds of millions of others, I’ve seen my country slowly going down the tubes in the past eight years. It’s gotten a lot harder to be proud of my country, and I see the ideals it stands for increasingly obscured by smoke.

That’s when I found out that several states — including my college’s state of New Jersey — have voted to pledge their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular election. Hot damn, my vote counts for one vote again! It’s a very exciting and rebellious move on the part of several states who are tired of only Ohio and Pennsylvania getting all the love.

So I registered! Read More »