Who Gets Your Vote? Ready For A Crash Course In Voter Education?

For the good of our country, we all need to be voters but even more important, we need to be informed voters. We need to know as much as we can about the candidates who seek to represent us in order to be sure that when the time comes, they truly will represent US.

Turnout Is Too Low

A lot of people don't trust the government which is one reason a lot of Americans don't bother to vote. Case in point - National Turnout " According to the Election Project, there were roughly 159 million ballots cast in the 2020 presidential election...this accounts for 66.7% of the eligible voting population of 239 million Americans. So, a third of us didn't vote and it's even worse for local elections.

In the recent primary election for Yakima City Council, the numbers were dismal.

District #2 4,398 registered voters.... 536 ballots cast....turnout rate 12.19%

District #4 5,694 registered voters....1,103 ballots cast ....turnout rate 19.37%

District #6 10,3346 registered voters... 3,773 ballots cast....turnout rate 36.47%

Education Forums Coming Up

How do we fix that? Education is a start and the Yakima Republican Women's Club is doing its part by hosting a couple of candidate forums. In their words, " Our members wanted to have a venue where they could hear from the local candidates for local positions - school boards, fire districts, and city councils. So we have put together two nights - one for Lower Valley candidates and one for Upper Valley candidates - where the public can come, gather around a table with their community members, and hear from the candidates for their local offices."

Multiple communities will be meeting at the same time, with enough space between the tables so those attending can focus on their community's candidates with each position's candidates having one hour in which to their thoughts and views, and answer questions.