By Staff
Scot Beard
Tuesday morning I walked into my local polling place and cast my vote for president of the United States and other federal, state and local offices.
While I knew early on which of the candidates for Congress would receive my vote, trying to decide a presidential candidate was much more challenging.
I thought it was because none of the candidates were appealing to me. There are some issues where I agree with John McCain and there are a few issues where I side with Barack Obama.
Unfortunately, neither candidate has what I consider satisfactory stances on the issues I value most.
Then I remembered this was the case in the last election.
In 2004, I did not vote for either George W. Bush or John Kerry.
Instead I exercised my option of writing in a candidate.
While I knew my candidate did not have a chance of getting elected, I felt at the time he would have been the best person for the job.
I considered writing him in again this year – he was a major candidate heading into the primaries – but my views have changed a little during the last four years and he did not impress me with his campaign.
None of the other candidates during the primaries impressed me, so I began to research third-party candidates only to find out most of them had a platform that suggested, in my opinion, these candidates were bordering on insanity.
I did not know what to do.
I feel voting is extremely important and, as Americans, we have a responsibility to exercise our right to have a voice in how our government is run by selecting its leaders.
I am not the most politically oriented person in the world, but I know what issues are important to my family and I.
This year I was unable to find a candidate I could completely support, but I chose the one I thought would be the best fit for my family.
I felt I fulfilled my civic obligations and, after much debate, fulfilled my obligations to my family.
I slept well Tuesday night.