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Letter: Be informed when you go to vote
OCONTO FALLS - Citizens of many countries around the world give their lives for the opportunity to have a voice in picking their leaders. In the U.S., way too many abdicate the civic responsibility of voting. The lack of participation in the electoral process is appalling.
Voting is a serious responsibility but making informed decisions is challenging. As primary and general elections approach, we are increasingly assaulted by political ads. Paid for by candidates or third-party interest groups, they seek to influence positive opinions of candidates or trash opponents. They are not above leaving out facts, stretching the truth or outright lying, so for the most part are useless in forming an opinion based on facts.
Don’t accept claims contained in ads as gospel. Fact-checking sites can sort the truthfulness of claims. PolitiFact Wisconsin is one such site (https://www.politifact.com/wisconsin). It evaluates statements made by or for politicians against documented facts and/or nonpartisan, experts so it is a means of checking self-serving claims — by no means perfect but better than the ads.
No matter your political persuasion, exercising your civic responsibility by informed voting for candidates you prefer to see lead our county, state, and national government honors and strengthens our representative democracy.