Registering is as easy as buying a lottery ticket, and easier than purchasing a cell phone, except the rewards of voting are more certain than the lottery and makes your voice louder than any cell phone. Remember, when you vote, you get to play an active role in deciding who runs California for the next four years and what measures become laws.

To register, visit our website (www.blackvoters.org) or the Secretary of State’s website (www.ss.ca.gov) where registering online is an option, or contact your local county registrar’s office. Additionally, you can pick up a registration form at both the Department of Motor Vehicles and U.S. post office.

Once you have registered, don’t forget to study the candidates and the issues. Keep in mind, we’ll spend more time studying the TV Guide than we will studying ballot measures that affect the water we drink and the air we breathe.

The ballot is filled with numerous candidates and issues at different levels of government.

At the federal level, we have a choice of candidates for senatorial and congress seats vying for our votes, while at the state level, the races are many, including the governor race and seven “down ballot” races, including secretary of state, attorney general and insurance commissioner.

The state level also offers races of senators and assembly members. The local level includes county supervisors, city council members, mayor and local measures that usually ask voters to decide if a small tax should be added to the purchase of local sales or bonds to build schools or improve parks and roads.

All of these candidate seats and issues are of vital importance. State bond measures 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D and 1E, for example, ask voters to approve billions of dollars in taxpayer money to build schools, improve water systems and construct more highways and roads. There is nothing frivolous about these topics – the improvements are needed, but they cost plenty. Weighing the pros and cons in an effort to decide which way to vote should be taken seriously. The future of California to grow wisely is in the balance.

Don’t forget the importance of our elected officials who vote on hundreds, if not thousands, of issues that affect our lives – and wallets – on a daily basis. For example, on Jan. 1, 2007, it will become illegal for California drivers to operate a hand-held cell phone while driving a car. Are you in favor of the law? Did your state representative vote for this legislation? If you are opposed to the idea, but you did not vote in the last election, you ought not to complain because you alone took yourself out of the political process.

I am not guaranteeing that your vote in November will curtail laws that you oppose, but at least you can look in the mirror and know you took a responsible role in participating in our democratic society. You’ll know you did your duty as an American citizen.

But voting is more than a duty; it is a precious right and not one to take for granted.

Think of the brave women who descended upon President Woodrow Wilson’s White House in 1917 begging the question: “How Long Must Women Wait for Liberty?” These law-abiding middle class women were arrested and imprisoned for months. Poor jail conditions leaked to the press creating a public relations scandal for Wilson, which led to the passage of Constitutional Amendment 19 in 1920 granting women the right to vote.

When you are in the polling place, think of Bob Moses, a New York native who spilled his blood and dodged bullets in the early 1960s while fighting the people in Mississippi who blocked Black citizens from voting in spite of the 14th Amendment, which stated all U.S. men have a right to vote. His brave actions were instrumental in The Voting Rights Act, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson a few years later in 1964.

Let’s not limit recognizing these men and women who bravely fought to guarantee our rights to vote to just Black History Month and other special days; let’s also honor them as we vote in every election. I hope you do your part on Election Day.

Russell Stiger is the founder and chief executive officer of BlackVoters.org, a non-profit, non-partisan organization committed to registering qualified California Black voters and turning them into viable players in the Democratic process. He can be reached at Russell.Stiger@blackvoters.org