Candidates Forums & Voters Guides 2009

When you go in to cast your vote, you are affecting:

• What laws will be made.
• How laws will be enforced.
• How and WHERE tax money will be spent.
• What businesses are likely to choose to come to your area.
• Your property taxes.
• The quality of education provided to your community’s children.
• Accessibility of a higher education.
• The value of your property.
• Who serves on citizen committees.
• What roads are repaired or expanded.
• Tuition rates of universities and community colleges.
• Access to services such as DMV (if money is cut so are days and hours)
• Rest areas on I-81.
• Law Enforcement.
• Fire and Rescue.
• Social Services.
• What types and where trails and bike-ways are built.
• What types of businesses are available to you locally.
• Funding cuts at State level result in increases at the local level.
  • Services that must be provided are often supplemented by State funds. When that money is cut, it falls upon the local jurisdictions to pick up the slack or else it doesn’t happen.
• Quality of drinking water.
• How stormwater issues are dealt with.
• Sewer and garbage issues.
• Maintenance of state and local parks.
• Quality and availability of recreational facilities.
• Health insurance.
• Unemployment insurance.
• Car insurance rates.
• Product safety (agricultural in particular).
• Fraud protection.
• Child welfare and safety.
• Economic Development (creation of JOBS!
• WHEN ELECTIONS ARE HELD!!!!! ( Are they convenient for voters and do they cost or save money for taxpayers.)

And, the list goes on for a long, long time. Your vote is important because the outcome of elections will have a long term effect on your quality of life, your financial resources, your community, and your state.

Please take the time to go vote on November 3rd. And remember that a vote to move the elections to November in Christiansburg will mean a saving of approximately $5000/election (at the minimum, that could double in the next couple of years). Could you think of a better use for that money? Maybe a local farmer’s market? Maybe to apply to the Aquatic Center interest payments? Maybe host another baseball or basketball tournament to bring more business in to the community? Maybe help support the Library or the Free Clinic? Maybe to use as the ‘matching funds’ to help develop sidewalk-trail systems that actually connect with something? Think about it!

YOUR VOTE IS YOUR VOICE! USE IT! DON’T REMAIN SILENT!

• Montgomery County Schoolboard forum
• The first of two Blacksburg Town Council forums
• State Delegate forum

Thanks to the Town of Blacksburg for recording and hosting the two Blacksburg forums.

Thanks to Montgomery County for providing copies of the video for the LWV to convert and put on the LWV’s website.

Thanks to the candidates and the audience participants.

And a special thanks to those members of the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County, the Virginia Interfaith Center, and the N.A.A.C.P. for the volunteer help that made these forums possible.

• Governor
• Lieutenant Governor
• Attorney General
• House of Delegates
• Board of Supervisors
• School Board
• Mayor of Blacksburg
• Town Council of Blacksburg
• Christiansburg Referendum to Move the Voting Date from May to November

That date is not so very far away. Now is the time to either start or continue looking at the choices available to you.

The League of Women Voters of Montgomery County will be hosting several Candidate Forums and you can find information on when those forums will occur at the LWV of Montgomery County, VA’s website at http:lwvmcva.org.  The Leage of Women Voters of Virginia will co-host with the AARP of Virginia a statewide televised Gubernatorial Debate also and that information is on the site as well.

You will also find other useful links such as the VOTER INFORMATION link which gives you links to such information as:

• how to verify that you are registered to vote
• where you go to vote
• what is on your ballot
• how to submit and verify the status of an absentee ballot
• Spanish and English version of the aCLU documents describing your voting rights
• and, FACTCHECK.org, one of the best places around to find out if the information you have been provided is accurate.

Every one of the web pages on that website has a link to VOTE411.org where you can find a ton of information along these lines and MORE!

Be sure to check bookmark the lwvmcva.org website because there will be ongoing updates to the candidate forums page including information such as (for forums sponsored by the LWV of Montgomery County, VA):

• Links to online videos of the candidate forums
• Questions presented to the candidates as part of the LWV’s Voter’s Guide candidates’ responses
• Questions from the public that there was not time to address during the forums and the candidates’ responses

Each time you vote you are investing in your future and the future of your children and grandchildren because the decisions made by elected officials today will have long term repercussions. Each time you vote, whether in National, State, or Local elections there WILL be an impact on you. I think it is worth it to take some time to learn about the candidates and cast my vote for the best person for the job! How about you? Do you have a little bit of time to invest in your future?

The League of Women Voters of Montgomery County, VA invites you to attend a panel discussion on re-visioning of Christiansburg and Blackburg Downtown areas:

Although called the League of Women Voters, this organization changed its bylaws to include men in 1974. To find out a little bit about the LWV’s you can check out some of these sites:

The National History of the League of Women Voters

The League of Women Voters of the United States

The League of Women Voters of Virginia

The League of Women Voters of Montgomery County Virginia

This will be a great opportunity to find out about some of the ways in which these two downtown areas can be enriched. Who knows, maybe you are the one person who comes up with the perfect idea for either or both downtowns? Maybe it is simply that you will ask a question that generates ideas. You will not know if you do not show!!!

Hope to see you there.

By Carol Lindstrom On March 28 at 11:57 AM

I hope they gained as much from the discussion as I did. What I heard was that we already have something good in our downtown areas and that we must work to keep it and improve it. The progress that both downtown areas have made is significant. What is needed now is to make a concerted effort to keep that momentum going.

Anyone who participates in a sport will tell you that you have to continue to train, continue to try out new techniques, or else you go stale and lose what you had to begin with. “Body building” the downtown areas is much the same. Throwing money at them for improvements, then turning away will result in failure sooner or later. I hope that both Towns will take some serious looks at what can be done to keep that “conditioning” in place.

Hope you enjoy the video.

By Carol Lindstrom On April 9 at 12:39 AM