Vote today. And don’t just vote for President. Don’t just vote for US Senate, US Rep, and all the races at the top of your ballot. Vote for everything. Every George W. Bush, every Tom Tancredo, and every Sarah Palin started somewhere–in the state legislature, the city council, or the school board. And stopping those candidates early saves us all a whole lot of time, money, energy and heartache.

Plus, if you’re in one of the states with an initiative ballot measure system (like Oregon, California and California), you’ll be voting on measures like mandatory minimum prison sentencing, same sex marriage equality, and, in the case of Columbia County, OR, whether construction sites should be required to hang 4′ x 8′ signs reading ‘legal workers only’ and offering the phone number for homeland security. Seriously. These are measures that will change the climate of your community and will change the lives of thousands, if not millions, of your friends and neighbors for years to come. So read up and, again, vote for everything.

If you’re in Oregon, check out the voterguides at Defend Oregon, Vote Equality (Basic Rights Oregon), and the Rural Organizing Project. In other states, find an organization you trust and look at what they’ve endorsed. And please, please, please: vote for everything.