Don't Not Vote!

2016 is a Presidential Election year, and as you know it’s a doozy! There are certainly some interesting choices and many strong emotions on both sides of the aisle. If you support one of the mainstream candidates, you probably already have a good idea about what your candidate stands for. If not, don’t worry, there are plenty of third-party and independent options for you to consider.

The Republican and Democratic nominations are :

Donald Trump (Republican)
Hillary Clinton (Democrat)

While these candidates garner most of the media attention, there are numerous non-mainstream candidates for President. The leading third-party and independent contenders are:

Jill Stein (Green Party)
Gary Johnson (Libertarian)
Kent Mesplay (Green Party)
Austin Peterson (Libertarian)
Marc Allen Feldman (Libertarian)
John McAfee (Libertarian)
Wiley Drake (American Independent Party)
Darrel Castle (Constitution Party)
Lynn Kahn (Peace and Freedom Party)
Gloria La Riva (Peace and Freedom Party)
Monica Moorehead (Peace and Freedom Party)
Ed Chlapowski (Reform Party)
Tom Hoefling (America’s Party)
Ken Fields (Independent)
Terry Jones (Independent)
Ron White (Independent)

And there are many more additional third-party and independent candidates for you to choose from.

As you can see from the lists above, there are lots of options beyond the mainstream candidates. Whether you favor the Democrats, Republicans or neither, do your research, know your options and please DON’T NOT VOTE!

There are 435 House of Representative seats up for election on November 8th, 2016. Elections for Congressional House Representatives are based on voting districts in your state. Who you can vote for depends on where you live. If you do not know what voting district you’re in, you can find out by accessing a list of United States Congressional districts on Wikipedia. Find your state in the list, then zero in on your geographic area on the map of your state. This will show your Congressional District for your state. (For example, click on New York link, zoom in on the map of NY, and find Newburgh. It is located in District 18, so if you live in Newburgh, NY you are in NY Congressional District 18).

Now you need to find out who is running in your district. To find out this information, you can access a list of the 2016 House of Representatives Elections on Wikipedia. To see the races in your district, find your state in the list, and follow the link to the table that lists the elections in that state. Find your district in the table’s first column, and examine the row to see the incumbent, their party, their elected date and other info The far right column shows the contenders in the race for Congress.

Many Congressional elections offer only a Democrat or Republican candidate, but as you can see from our example above, some elections do feature Independent candidates, or candidates from other parties such as the Green or Liberal parties. Do your research and DON’T NOT VOTE!

One third of the 100 seats in the United States Senate are up for election on November 8th, 2016. Senatorial elections are based solely on the state you live in, so if you don’t know who is running, it’s even easier to find out. All you have to do is access the list of United States 2016 Senate Elections on Wikipedia, and click on the link for the state you live in. This will show you a brief description of the election in your State. Let’s say for example you live in Colorado. Visit the Wikipedia page and click on the link for Colorado. This will show you a brief description of the election in Colorado, including all the candidates.

The information displayed includes descriptions of the candidates, with links to more information where available. The link under the Colorado heading (circled above) will take you to more specific information on the State’s senate election, where available.

As you can see from the example above, many states feature Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Unitarians and other independent or third-party candidates. There’s always something worth voting for, so do your research and DON’T NOT VOTE!

There are 14 states holding Gubernatorial elections on November 8, 2016. Along with many other state and local level elections, from State Legislatures to City Councils to School Boards.

To find out if your state is voting for Governor, simply access the list of United States 2016 Gubernatorial Elections on Wikipedia. Scroll down to the “Race Summary” table on that page and find your state in first column. Examine the row for your state to find out who the incumbent is, if she is running for re-election, and additional information. The contenders in the election are listed in the last column, along with their party affiliation.

As you can see, many of the Gubernatorial elections feature Democrats, Republicans, Independents and other candidates from third-parties such as the Green Party, or in New York, we even have the “Rent is 2 Damn High” party! There are usually options, though not always as colorful as this 🙂

In addition to Governor’s races, there may be Mayoral or other local races going on in your state. Rather than try to list all that here for each state, we’ll just direct you to the work already done by the fine folks at RockTheVote.org. Visit the Rock The Vote Election Information page and click on your state for a list of all elections happening on election day and a link to your states Election Board.

We’ve never before had access to this much info so easily, so do your research, vote your conscience but whatever you do please DON’T NOT VOTE!