'To vote the vote, the vote we vote, can vote do vote ...'

Thinking about NOT making that little extra effort to vote today because the weather's a bit crummy? Think again. Let me tell you a true story:

Some years ago while I was living in Southern California, in a city not too much smaller than Cincinnati, Election Day was much like today, but with a steady drizzle all day. By the time I got out of work, I didn't feel like making the soggy slog over to the fire station to cast my ballot, so I skipped it. I later wished I hadn't.

Here's why. One race for a seat on City Council wound up to be so close that a recount was triggered. After all the chads were unhung, the official vote wound up as an absolute tie. The tiebreaker was a coin-flip, which the candidate I intended to vote for lost.

The winner ended up being an obnoxious jerk on council, which actually meant that he fit right in - but that's another story. The point is that particularly in an election such as today's, with a number of hotly contested races, a relative handful of little, individual decisions - cutting short a trip to the grocery to swing by the polling place, for example - not only could make the difference, they WILL make the difference.

Like David Wells (see below), I voted early this time to see how the system works, so I'm not sweating the weather. But if you haven't yet voted, make sure you get there before the polls close (7:30 p.m. in Ohio, 6 p.m. in Kentucky) - unless you're going to vote against the guys I voted for, that is.

About the headline on this entry: It's from Gertrude Stein's lyrics to Virgil Thomson's delightfully quirky opera "The Mother of Us All" about Susan B. Anthony and the fight for women's suffrage. So vote the vote.