At the risk of sounding like your mother (“Eat that broccoli. There are children starving in China who would love to have it.”), we say get out and vote today. There are people in repressed countries around the world who would love to be able to vote.

What excuses do you have for not voting? No time? Too busy? The polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in most precincts. Surely there is some point during the day when you can make a trip to the polls.

Too inconvenient? Your polling place is right in your neighborhood or township. You could probably walk over there. If you drive, you might not get a parking spot in front of the door, but so what? Think of people in Afghanistan or other remote parts of the world who walk miles to get to their polling places, often risking terrorist attacks to get to vote.

It doesn’t matter anyway? Oh, it matters. Six years ago, Al Franken defeated Norm Coleman for Senate by 312 votes. If one more voter in each precinct had shown up to vote for Coleman, he would have won by nearly 4,000 votes.

The votes you cast today are the red blood cells of the American democracy. The more there are, the more healthy and robust our government becomes.

Please do your part and vote today.