Have you voted yet? We really want to know because EVERY VOTE COUNTS!

You don’t have to look far to see how important every vote is. Just this past August, right here in Kansas, Kris Kobach won the GOP primary for Governor by just 343 votes out of 314,890 cast. And in Kansas House District 104, moderate and pro-public education Representative Steven Becker lost to an extreme conservative by just 9 votes  out of 4,081 cast.

(By the way, if you live in HD 104 in Reno County, don’t count Becker out – write him in!)

We’ve said this so many times before but it is still true. Why risk being the one vote that could have made a difference? VOTE!

We came across this article on NPR, Why Every Vote Matters — The Elections Decided By A Single Vote (Or A Little More), and found it to be the best argument for making sure you get to the polls to cast your vote. Our favorite story in the article is the election in which Kevin Entze, a police officer from Washington state, lost a GOP primary in a state House race by one vote out of more than 11,700 cast. And then he found out that one of his fellow reserve officers forgot to mail in his ballot. “He left his ballot on his kitchen counter, and it never got sent out,” Entze told Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Every vote really does matter to public school educators because every aspect of your professional life is impacted by the decisions politicians make.

How much funding your school gets is decided by the politicians elected as state Senators, Representatives, and Governor. How much you get paid and what your health benefits will cost is determined by the politicians on your school board. They also decide when you get new textbooks, what your supply budget will be, and how many students will be in your classroom. Rules for renewing your license are determined by the politicians on the State Board of Education.

You have to abide by their decisions and so you must use your vote to protect your profession.

So, if you have not yet voted in this election, you simply have to do so tomorrow, November 6.

You can’t let the weather deter you. You can’t let yourself lose track of the time and get there too late. Casting your vote is the most important thing you will do tomorrow for your career, your profession, and your students.