Posted on: Saturday, October 23, 2004

EDITORIAL
Your vote is crucial in presidential race

During a presidential election years ago, Hawai'i voters had the unhappy experience (if they voted in the afternoon) of going to the polls after Jimmy Carter had already conceded in his bid for re-election.

Talk about a pointless vote.

That experience and others like it have given many people in Hawai'i the idea that their participation in the presidential voting is at best a symbolic exercise.

Not this year.

An Advertiser Hawai'i Poll carried in today's paper suggests that the contest between George Bush and John Kerry is a dead heat in Hawai'i.

Things can always change between now and Election Day, of course. That 12 percent undecided (which is high by national standards) could collapse in one direction or another.

But for the moment, and perhaps even up to Nov. 2, Hawai'i's four electoral votes appear to be up for grabs.

And because the overall presidential election is expected to be equally close, those four votes could make a substantial difference.

All this simply underscores the importance of voting on Tuesday, Nov. 2. Yes, your vote is needed to sort out contests such as the Board of Education, local legislative races and the like.

But it may turn out that your vote is equally critical in choosing who will lead our nation for these next four difficult years.