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To vote or not to vote?
1101STATESENATE district 43 map
District 43 of the state senate

It’s election time, and you know all about it—debates have been going on for months; that Trump guy is all over the TV; socialism is a hot topic; and a day doesn’t go by without the national news stations mentioning Hillary’s emails.

Oh, wait, that’s not the election we’re talking about.

The 2016 presidential election is still a year away and that’s where the political focus has been. But should it be?

After all there is an election Tuesday.

Sure, no one is looking into State Senate District 43 candidates’ emails and Covington city council members aren’t talking about putting up a fence to keep people from immigrating to the Square.

But residents are concerned about local commercial development. Residents do want to know how more industry can come to Covington. Residents would love to find out how their day-to-day travel could be less bumpy and less dangerous at intersections.

The president isn’t signing off on any of those but the Covington City Council is, and so are state legislatures. Therefore, this is the time to vote. If you’re not convinced yet, here’s a list of why not to vote, see if the argument stands.

1. No one’s talking about the men and women not on Fox News and CNN

Thank goodness.

Candidates for Tuesday’s elections have been staying off TV and knocking on doors, because they can reach out and directly communicate with the people who are depending on them to make the correct decisions to add a new traffic light or two, and carry out the vision for the future of the Square.

2. You don’t know anything about the candidates

Chances are you do.

They are your neighbors and travel the same roads you do every day. Also profiles of Covington city council candidates were in this very newspaper a week ago, and state senate candidates have been covered prior to that.

3. You’re confused

City Council candidates from both the west and east ward are on the ballot, so every Covington resident can vote for their representation. Porterdale voters have a referendum that affects the whole village town. District 43 of the state senate covers the northwest end of the county. The race affects residents from the top end of Newton County through Oxford into Covington down to Stewart and Chestnut Road, west of Highway 36, and touches the west end of the county north of Oak Hill Road.

4. No one else is voting

It’s true, city elections typically have dismal turnout. After early voting there were 534 votes in person and 73 mailed in of the 5,773 registered voters in the city of Covington for the council elections.

During early voting in the district for the special election, 809 votes have been cast in person and 40 received through mail.

For more on early voting click here.

However, that puts even more emphasis on every vote counting. Four years ago the last time these three seats were up for the city council, 1,364 votes were cast. That means that one person made up slightly less than 1 percent (.073 percent), so if 51 percent of the votes went to one candidate than your vote pretty much decided that election.

5. You’re not registered

If that’s the case, it’s too late this time around. Sad face. But you can register online for the March 1 presidential primary. The deadline for that is Feb. 1.

6. Don’t know where to go

This time around it’s easier than usual. Go to city hall, if you live in the part of the county that is having the special election for state senate, just 12 of the county’s precincts, go to the secretary of state’s website and click on the my voter page, http://www.mvp.sos.ga.gov/MVP/mvp.do.