By RONDA GRAFF

With the election season at its peak, many people have said they are so tired of political signs lining every block, commercials filling the airwaves and postcards overflowing mailboxes. And that is understandable. 

But there are two reasons that this is happening

If these advertisements didn't work, then the candidates and causes wouldn't spend so much time and money doing them. Campaign analysts study these things and have learned that they do make an impact. More than once I have heard someone say, “I saw it on a commercial” or “I read it on a flyer,” and have formed their opinion based on those facts. They have made their decision on simply what was presented to them, rather than doing any research to see whether that statement was true or if it was twisted along the way. As long as people continue to make up their mind from these ads, the overwhelming amounts of political advertisements will continue.

The other reason we are being overrun with political ads this year is because of the money. More and more dollars are being funnelled into campaigns. For a person to be competitive, ie., to get their name in front of voters and to counteract negative ads against them, a candidate must spend and spend and spend. And there are plenty of sources that are willing to provide those funds because a) they have those funds available and b) it has been legalized by the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Until those two things change, elections will continue as they are. 

Ironically, to change the second issue - money in politics - we have to address the first issue, which is being informed.

For many voters, those signs, TV ads and mailers are the only source of information they use to make their decisions, when instead we should be researching the voting history of the incumbent and the policy decisions of the current office holder. 

We should be attending meet-and-greets when a candidate visits your community, not just to listen to what they say but to also ask questions about issues that affect your daily life. 

We should be encouraging candidates to participate in debates and town halls so that we can truly learn how they feel about an issue, rather than just a sound bite on an ad or a few words on a postcard. Or my personal favorite, bits and pieces someone has said which are either taken out of context or purposely edited to infer one thing when the speaker meant something else.

When we learn more about a candidate, then we can make an informed decision about the person who can truly make a difference, who wants to change an issue, and who wants to make a positive impact in the average person’s life.

But our civic duty to be informed doesn’t end on election day. 

For many people, they can’t wait for Nov. 3 because then the mailings, the ads and the signs will go away - for a few months at least. But ironically, that is when the real work starts. Because whether the person you voted for gets into office or not, whether the issue you voted for passed or failed, we must still be diligent as U.S. citizens. 

This means calling your officials to let them know how you feel about an issue. An easy way to stay in contact with national officials is with the app, “Five Calls,” which provides the phone numbers of our U.S. senators and congresspeople based on your location. It even provides a list of issues that might be important to you but you can also just call to remind your elected official that they work for you, not their party, not a corporation, not another branch of the government.

This means attending meetings in your hometown like city council and county commissioners meetings. Most of them are regularly scheduled meetings so you can put them on your calendar and attend when it fits your schedule. Or taking it a step further and asking to serve on a committee that determines what our parks look like, how our public facilities are run, or whether public transportation needs are being met.

This means attending any opportunity to meet or talk to the officials in person, whether sitting in on a weekly call with our state legislature or stopping by a town hall, which seem to be less and less frequent, which is yet another issue and yet another reason to call our elected officials.

And if it is an issue, like legalizing or criminalizing something, make your voice heard by forming a group of like-minded people because there is power in numbers or writing letters to those in office because they are the one who can change things.

While many people have already voted through the mail or in-person at the courthouse by this point, it is still important to be informed, whether it is to answer a question of someone who hasn’t voted yet or to determine what you will do after the election. 

And all of us are ready for election day to be over so the relentless ads stop but ironically, that is not the end. After all, our civic duty doesn’t end on election day. It is just the beginning.