The designated national holiday for local elections day should mean more than taking a day off. This holiday emphasizes the importance of voicing one’s opinions and claiming one’s rights. After all, the most essential element of democracy is the process of election itself. However, finding the “right” candidate is the most tricky and difficult part. It is especially harder for local elections since there are many representative positions and even more candidates for each representative position. The promotion brochures that I had to go through just to know each candidate’s major public promises and policies stack up in piles of paper as thick as a book. As a result, many people neglect this process of searching for the right candidate or give up on the way.

Then, what happens to those people who fail to find their “right” candidate? This is where the problem arises. A lot of them vote for candidates by  their so-called conditions or by nepotism. Even more vote based on the candidates’ fame or image. Therefore, image is very critical to politicians and politicians try hard to make a friendly impression on the people. We can see many politicians visiting local markets and social service facilities, particularly around election period. However, voting according to the candidate’s image and impression is a very dangerous act. As the familiar saying, “Never judge a book by its cover,” I believe judging the candidate by his/her image is the most foolish thing to do, since most of these images can be from built-up images by the media.

I tend to be extra careful when dealing with the image of a person, especially when that person is only shown through the media. Hence, I try to take one more look at the person engraved with a scarlet letter is engraved to someone and once more to the person too good to be true, especially in the case of politicians. I give myself one more chance before judging the person to be corrupt, evil, or righteous because I believe that humans have both the bright side and dark side in them. Nobody is ideal enough to be an angel or even a devil; there are many cases where the circumstances and situations let the people end up in different places. I do not mean that I want to justify an unrightfully committed act; however, I do not want to give out scarlet letters so easily, and let the impression and images take control of my judgment. As a result, it is especially important and necessary to make the right decision based on valid and logical reasoning when we vote for candidates.

It is important that we keep our judgments straight and continuously try to voice our opinion to make a better society, and in doing so, I am sure the effort will count someday. I hope the newly elected representatives keep their promises and not let their supporters down.