Tomorrow's election

 There are a record number of voters that will hit the polls tomorrow in our Presidential election. We're talking potentialy 10 million or so first-time voters. In Missouri alone, we have 340,000 new first time voters.  While 150,000 of them are 18-24 year olds, the rest other nearly 200,000 first time voters who are over the age of 25. That's pretty cool.

I've had several people ask me about the candidates and how I'd recommend voting between John McCain/Sarah Palin on the one side, and Barack Obama and Joe Biden on the other.  When it comes to animal welfare issues, I don't really have a terribly strong opinion on the candidates.  If you want to know how the candidates feel about animal welfare issues, Melissa has a really nice overview of their voting records over at the No Kill Nation.  (Although, I will also add that Obama was also in the Illinois State legislature and voted in favor of the bill that prohibits breed descrimination ordinances in the state of Illinois).   With the exception of Governor Palin, all seem pretty strong in animal welfare legislation.

I don't have a terribly strong opinion because I don't feel like our nation's President has all that much of a role in animal welfare issues. It's an important election, no doubt.  However, I'm going to make my selection at the polls based on economic and foreign policy stances.

However, there are hundreds of other candidates up for election for state offices that have a MUCH bigger role in animal welfare issues than our nation's President.  In Ohio, they have the opportunity to vote out two of the three State Supreme Court Judges who ruled in favor of the city of Toledo in the Tellings case.  In my own district, we have a state representative who has been very active in working on responsible legislation on commercial breeding operations (like, actually providing the funding they need to do the proper inspections and for fines on commercial breeders who don't have a license - not crazy AR restrictive stuff).  She is also up for re-election.

There are hundreds of these elections tomorrow that have a greater impact on our pets than the nation's president. I'm excited that the Presidential election has people excited to vote and take part in our political system. However, I hope this is just a start. I hope that the animal welfare community will continue to come out to the polls en masse -- but fully armed with the knowledge of how their local politicians feel about animal welfare issues that are important to them. We have a ton of voting power. It's time we start using it.

Now, let's go vote out a couple of these judges in Ohio, get a few good AW people in state legislatures, and find ourselves a new President.

Comments

[Carianne]

FYI~

In Ohio, it was Sutton and O'Connor who voted in favor of Toledo vs. Tellings. If you are voting today in our state, you may want to use this information as part of who you vote for as State Supreme Court Judges.

[Tasha Schweigel]

Boo with Sutton and O'Connor. They definitely didn't get my vote today!