I saw a national poll recently showing that over 90 percent of Republicans were anxious to vote in this November's elections while less than 70 percent of Democrats were. Republicans tend to vote in higher numbers anyway, which means that, if that poll is accurate, the vast majority of Republicans will show up to vote, and will vote for their candidates, while many Democrats will ignore the election and help the Republicans win.

Yes, that's right. By not caring deeply about the results of this midterm election, Democrats help Republicans win.

That is particularly a problem in the state of Utah and Utah County in particular. Republicans have been in charge of the legislature for 30 years and they have been in the governor's mansion for 26. And they've brought us alot of problems we can't afford to continue. Not caring about this election will mean a continuation of poor representatives and bad policy.

What's at stake in this election includes the following:

Education
We all know Utah has the highest class sizes and spends the least on our public education system of any state in the nation. This hasn't always been the case. Utah has fallen way behind during these 30 years of Republican rule of the state legislature!

Does this have to continue? Absolutely not!

But changing it requires changing the people who get elected to the state legislature. Rather than sitting back and watching the election of Republican incumbents who vote against class size reduction and favor diverting public money to private education, we need to work to elect people like Hal Miller, Deon Turley, Linnea Barney, and many others who value public education.

Job Creation
The response of the Utah County Republican legislators has been three-fold 1. Wait for the recession to end, rather than try to create jobs to help people hurt by the recession 2. Criticize the federal government for the stimulus package and unemployment compensation extensions and other attempts to create jobs during the recession (while still taking the money the federal government provides Utah) 3. Attempt to divert the public's attention from the economy and job creation, which the legislators intend to do nothing about, towards message bills on state sovereignty that accomplish nothing except keep their Republican extremist convention delegates happy.

Ethics
Our Utah County Republican legislators voted for a watered down ethics bill that does little to curb the ethical abuses that have been common among legislators, while they railed against public-driven ethics initiative that instituted real ethics reform.  If they are re-elected, ethics reform will be a dream and not a reality. We either get more intransigent legislators on ethics reform or we replace them with Democratic legislators who will institute real ethics reform.

Clear Air
Utah's valleys have some of the worst air pollution in the nation. According to the American Lung Association, Utah County is 15th in the nation in terms of the greatest risk to the population from short-term particle pollution. That refers to the number of particles in the air over a 24 hour period. Read: bad air days. And the number of days with unhealthy air levels has increased over the past year. Our dirty air situation is getting worse. And that's bad news for many people, especially older people and children. The response from our Republican legislators? Nothing.

Those are just a few of the important policy areas affected by this election.

Elections matter. Get involved. Don't let the Republicans continue these bad policy choices.