If you need another reason to go to the polls this year to cast your vote, there is one without party affiliation, but you meet it every day–the environment. Of all the things you can do for the environment, voting is one of the simplest and one that has the most impact.
Casting your ballot takes just a few minutes, but your choices for candidates up and down the ballot can affect environmental policy for years. Your vote joins with others, like a voice in a chorus, making your vote that much louder and stronger.
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Check out candidates’ positions, and see whose views align most with yours on the environment. If you do not find any positions listed, look for ways to get in touch with those candidates and ask them where they stand.
Environmental issues range from keeping our air, soil, and water clean, protecting wildlife, ensuring space for wildlife, agriculture, and recreation, state and national forests, to small local parks and city trails and greenspaces. Increasingly, environmental issues overlap with emergency preparedness and resilience to natural disasters, and touch nearly every level of government, from the highest offices to local government.
If candidates do not outline their goals or positions on their websites, or do not have a campaign website, nonpartisan groups, especially conservation groups like the League of Conservation Voters, might have asked them questions about their positions on environmental topics, or graded them on their voting record related to environmental issues.
At the federal level, the president and members of Congress have a chance to set national policy and fund environmental initiatives. State senators and representatives have that opportunity for our state and focus on more localized issues, from the coast and its communities to nuclear waste storage to managing growth in the Upstate.
Depending on where you live, your ballot also may include choices for local offices such as Clerk of Court, Commissioner of Public Works, Coroner, County Council, Fire District Commissioner, Sheriff, Soil and Water Conservation District Commissioner, and Sanitary Sewer District Commissioner. Some of these agencies have missions directly focused on environmental issues, but many do not, though the work of all greatly impacts our environment.
While planning for rare natural disasters with the changing environment in mind is one reason to choose leaders wisely, there are also issues where voting with environmental awareness is impactful in day-to-day operations.
One example is improving transportation systems to use more renewable energy. Transportation planning is an issue not just for transportation officials, but for any agency that uses vehicles to perform its duties.
With storms, heat waves, and flooding events becoming stronger, reviewing, and improving disaster plans is imperative. Better planning for future changes will benefit all agencies in their daily operations, and during minor events, as well as major ones, as evidenced recently with Hurricane/Tropical Storm Helene.
If we prepare ourselves and our environment, we will all benefit. In a larger sense, this is a health issue: the health of our communities and our planet.
Each of us, and each candidate, plays a role in our community’s health by the actions taken or not taken..
Involvement should not stop after Election Day. Once people are elected, your vote gives your voice more power. Being a voter amplifies your voice, with your vote working like a megaphone to make sure officials hear what you have to say.
Get involved! Your vote counts. Your voice counts.
Election Day is Nov. 5. Polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Early voting began Oct. 21. Check scvotes.gov to find your polling place or the early voting location that is most convenient for you.
Christina Johanningmeier is chair of the Natural Resources Committee of the League of Women Voters of Spartanburg County.