{"id":155021,"date":"2016-05-31T08:19:50","date_gmt":"2016-05-31T14:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=155021"},"modified":"2016-05-31T08:19:50","modified_gmt":"2016-05-31T14:19:50","slug":"democracy-means-getting-out-and-voting-for-your-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/05\/democracy-means-getting-out-and-voting-for-your-candidates\/","title":{"rendered":"Democracy means getting out and voting for your candidates"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMENTARY:<\/strong> It’s been invigorating and exhausting to watch this primary season. There have been so many words at all levels, forums locally and us watching those supported by the sheriff in action. Primaries are ending. There is noise and violence at national levels; so far, just noise locally.<\/p>\n

\"Jerry

Courtesy photo<\/p>

Jerry Nachison<\/p><\/div>\n

Voter turnout is key for our June primaries, and in November. Will we have the most apathetic voters in our history — at all levels — or not?<\/p>\n

Clearly it’s too early to definitively say. Voter turnout in the United States is currently amongst the lowest in the entire developed world. In the last presidential election, only 53 percent of Americans voted, according to the U.S. Census. Local is worse. We are shamed by European turnout levels. We all know what some of the most-stated reasons for not voting are, e.g: \u201cMy vote won\u2019t make a difference;” “politicians ignore us;” “change won\u2019t happen, regardless;\u201d and so on.<\/p>\n

The percentage of Do\u00f1a Ana County citizens voting in November 2014 was under 20 percent. The fewer voters who\u00a0turn out, the less likely citizen interests will prevail. Low turnout proves the “common knowledge” reasons stated above. Change is in the air, both good and bad, and voting is critical.<\/p>\n

June 7 is here — and Nov.\u00a08 is coming. We have important county, state representative, state senator, congressional, and presidential elections. Democracy means getting out and voting for your candidates.<\/p>\n

Jodie and I have both voted early. Get up and respond to the \u201cget out the vote\u201d campaigns in Do\u00f1a Ana County. Let\u2019s beat 2014. Please turn out; it\u2019s important to you — for the county, state and for national-level candidates.<\/p>\n

“Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves — and the only way they could do this is by not voting at all.”\u00a0— President Franklin D. Roosevelt<\/a><\/p>\n

Jerry Nachison is a 10-year Las Cruces resident who is\u00a0active in local politics and nonprofits. He\u2019s a retired social\/housing gerontologist.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The fewer voters who turn out, the less likely citizen interests will prevail. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":113495,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[708,115],"class_list":["post-155021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-2016-election","tag-dona-ana-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}