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Nominee overlooked voting responsibility

By Staff | Sep 20, 2000

Regardless of what Americans think of Dick Cheney’s politics, it’s disheartening to learn that the Republican vice presidential nominee hasn’t bothered to vote in numerous elections during the past five years.

According to a recent report by The Dallas Morning News, Cheney didn’t vote in 14 of 16 elections since he registered to vote in Dallas County nearly five years ago. Granted, some of those elections involved only state or local questions and candidates.

The elections in which he voted were the November 1996 presidential election and the November 1998 race for governor and other state and local offices.

When asked about his track record, the candidate said he’s voted in every federal primary and general election in the last “20-some years.” Extensive travel and a focus on “global concerns,” the candidate said, have kept him from involvement in lower levels of the political process.

Certainly, Texans can cast an absentee ballot. And one would think that Dick Cheney would believe his life is being affected by those candidates running at the local, county and state levels.

It is our duty as citizens of this country to educate ourselves about government at all levels and to exercise our right to vote. Perhaps Cheney missed that lesson in Civics 101.