Can I Ask a Favor From You?

One week to go.

It seems that I've been blogging forever and yet it's been only about 16 months or so. But all that effort, the nearly 800 posts, the hours of writing and researching, has been leading up to this moment.

In the course of those 782 posts - including this one - I hope I've provided my readers with some information they didn't have, some insight they hadn't thought of, something to think about, to laugh about, to cry about. I hope I've been able to get at least a few readers, those who were looking for something other than the pre-digested bits they got from television or the mainstream press, to continue their search for information, to become informed citizens. And if I've gotten just one person to click through to an article or another blog that they might not have read otherwise and if they discovered something they didn't know before, then all that work will have been worth the effort.

Now, the favor. With just one week before the elections on Tuesday, November 2, I'd ask anyone that reads this post to dedicate themselves to do two things. Just two.

1. Vote. I'm sure my regular readers are all registered, have found out where their polling places are and have set aside some time from their busy schedules on Tuesday. But have YOU? It's too late to register, of course, but if you were wondering whether it was worth your effort, stop wondering. Please, get out on Tuesday, do whatever you have to do to get to the polls. Call a friend, call a cab - hell, call me. But vote.

2. Get Someone else to Vote. If you're going to the polls, you might as well take someone with you. It doesn't really matter what party they are registered with - although I'd love for you to take along someone voting for Kerry/Edwards - just get someone else to vote who might not otherwise have done so. With all the polls pointing to one of the closest elections ever, both in the popular vote and in the Electoral College, every vote will be important.

I haven't been in the habit here of asking for anything from my readers - other than for more comments - but in this case I thought it important to ask these favors of you. Despite the rhetoric and the spin flying around the airwaves and on the web, as we close in on Election Day, this really is the most important vote you will ever have cast.

VOTE