An informed vote

Early voting starts today, the first light at the end of the campaign 2010 tunnel.

No doubt, thousands of Clark County residents will race to shopping malls, grocery stores and other polling stations this morning to get the whole mud-slinging, name-calling, truth-trampling ordeal over with. No doubt, many of those who do step in front of voting machines today will be significantly less excited about down-ticket races than they are about the Reids at the top of the ballot.

From the Legislature to the School Board to ballot questions, a lot of campaigns have gotten short shrift this cycle, a fact that will contribute to an awful lot of uninformed votes.

If you can withstand just one more day of electioneering, Sunday’s edition of the Review-Journal will provide information on every race on local ballots, from U.S. Senate to advisory Question 5. Our 2010 General Election Voters Guide is a good defense against an uninformed vote.

The Voters Guide is best used in tandem with the sample ballot you should have received via mail from the Clark County Election Department. Identify which races appear on your sample ballot, then read the guide’s examinations of those races to help you decide how to vote.

For additional perspective, the Review-Journal’s editorial page has offered endorsements in most of the key races. Our endorsements will continue into next week.

Lower-profile races might not have the advertising budgets of the gubernatorial campaign, but they can have profound effects on our education system, our quality of life and the direction of a state that’s been knocked backward by this vicious economic downturn.

If the Voters Guide does not provide you with enough information to make a decision, don’t cast an uninformed vote. You might cancel out a well-considered choice by an informed voter. Leave a race blank if you can’t make a confident selection.

This election will have huge consequences for the future of Nevada and the nation. The right to vote is among our most sacred — and frequently abused — franchises. Make yours count.