Do the right thing, cast a vote today

After what seems like years — OK, it has been years when it comes to the presidential race — Election 2016 will finally come to an end today when those of us who haven’t voted early will head to the polls.The sad fact, however, is that many of us won’t vote today.In 2012, for example, more than 42 percent of Americans who were eligible to vote did not cast a ballot. Even here, where voter turnout always beats the national average, a good 20 to 30 percent of eligible voters will not use the right that millions of Americans have fought for since our country’s founding in 1776.This year especially we’ve heard the argument that the presidential choices are so bad that “it’s not worth my time to vote.” Even if you buy into the Hillary-Donald race is one between two mediocre candidates, there are other races on the ballot.There are races for one of Iowa’s two U.S. Senate race, for the Fourth Congressional District, the Iowa Legislature and three Chickasaw County Board of Supervisor seats, and those, one can argue, will affect us just as much as the one that will put Barack Obama’s replacement into the White House in January.There are numerous questions that will be answered by this time tomorrow.Will Iowa continue to have a “split government” or will Republicans keep control of the Iowa House of Representatives and finally wrestle control of the Iowa Senate from the Democrats?Will the Board of Supervisors have a “new look” in January or will the two incumbents, who both lost primary races in June, rally for General Election wins?Will Iowans give Charles Grassley a seventh term in the U.S. Senate?And you can have a say in answering those questions by going to your precinct today between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. and casting a ballot.