Life is complicated enough, even-year voting makes things easier: YES on 2E

By Lila Hickey, published in the Daily Camera:

We live in incredible — and overwhelming — times. We can video chat with someone across the world, but to do so, we must download four different apps, know which ones work on which of our devices, and remember the particular app used by each of our friends, family and colleagues. We can sign our children up for a seemingly endless list of activities, but endless too are the fees, travel and sudden expectation of professional-quality skill development from our seven-year-olds.

Each new opportunity comes hand-in-hand with more responsibilities and more tasks, and many of us perform a constant balancing act to prioritize the most important thing from moment to moment. Too often that means last-minute scrambles to meet a deadline, or completely neglecting something we care about. How many of us feel a pinch of guilt when we think about the things that simply didn’t make the cut? Fighting the climate crisis, simple time with our family, or volunteering with local organizations to give back to Boulder.

Low voter participation is a universally-lamented problem in America — and I believe it reflects exactly the challenge I just described. Folks do care — and massively increased voter participation when jurisdictions sync to the national election cycle shows this — but life is busy and complicated. And so is voting, even in Colorado! We must track election cycles, candidates and issues, understand requirements and deadlines for registration, address changes and ballot returns — all without neglecting any of our other responsibilities! Switching to match the national election cycle allows everyone to consolidate their voting-related chores, while also reducing confusion around calendar dates.

Modern life is incredible, but it’s incredibly complicated — and so I’m voting for the even-year elections measure in November. Let’s make it easier for all of us to do our civic duty!