Last week, my friend Ms. Pigette told me she has a new favorite tune. It is a message to all those folks who complain about politicians in Washington, Augusta, Wiscasset, Boothbay, Newcastle, Damariscotta and even Southport.

It was sung by her favorite artist, the great Willie Nelson. You can look it up on YouTube. Here is the lyric:

“If you don’t like who’s in there, vote ’em out. That is what election day is all about.

The biggest gun we got, is called the ballot box,

So, if you don't like who’s in there, vote ’em out.”

Willie proposed a simple answer to a complex problem, just register and vote. Here in Maine, it is easy. You can even register on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 6.

If you like the candidates, vote for them. If you don’t like them, vote against them. It is that simple. But it works only if we all participate.

The folks who stay home, “in protest” are just cop-outs.

Our system allows everyone to vote. It is designed as a check on the incumbents.

Over the years, officeholders have engineered complex schemes to ensure their success, tricks like poll taxes and literacy tests and complex ways to issue voter registration cards. In Georgia, the secretary of state, who is in charge of voter registration records, has put some 50,000 registrations on hold due to what some say is a political ploy. Democrats say he is trying to keep black voters from participating in the election because he thinks they might want to support the Democratic candidate for governor, who happens to be a black woman. They also note the secretary of state just happens to be the Republican candidate for governor.

These political games are child’s play compared to a land far away where I once watched voters line up outside a large church on election day. As voters approached the ballot box, soldiers with automatic rifles slung over their shoulders, “helped them” vote. A couple of days later, the government announced they had convinced nearly 100 percent of the population to support them. Our Russian friends seem to support Czar Putin by almost the same percentage.

We all know the big money boys push “their friends” by bankrolling the commercials flooding our TV sets. If you listen closely at the end of the commercial, it will say “This was paid for by people for good government,” or some such name. It won’t say it was paid for by a fat cat who wants a big fat favor from the candidate.

They also pay for “voter surveys” designed to push you to support candidate X or Y. They ask questions like this: “If the election was held today, would you vote for Candidate X, a good church-going person who likes cute puppies, or would you vote for Candidate Y, a known mass murderer, and Russian spy?”

They also fund my favorite — robocalls. “Hi, this is (insert the name of the famous person). Did you know that Candidate X loves puppies, loves his mother, eats his spinach and is a good church-going person? Did you know some say Candidate Y hates puppies, is a known mass murderer and hates his long-suffering mother? I am sure you will back Candidate X because you are a good guy and a true American.”

Years ago, I knew a candidate for sheriff who shelled out big dollars to a “consultant” who promised him immediate results if he purchased an expensive package of robocalls.

The message went something like this: “Hi, this is your friendly sheriff. For the last four years, I have done a great job so you and your children would be safe. Blah, Blah, Blah, Please vote for me on Election Day.”
 The computer program was set to start calling all the phones in the county beginning at 3 p.m. when most folks started to come home from work. But, and, you knew there was going to be a but, someone pushed the wrong key, and the calls started to go out at 3 a.m.

So, put yourself in the place of a voter. Your phone rings at 3 a.m. Thinking someone was calling to tell you something terrible had happened to one of your kids, you stumble out of bed, stub your toe on the dresser and grab the phone.

“Hello?”

Then a voice comes on the line and says: “Hi, this is your friendly sheriff. Please vote for me on Election Day.”

The consultant was right. That election ploy bought the sheriff immediate results.

Sure, politicians play games to win elections, we all know that. But friends, none of them work if we all get out and vote.

If you like them, vote for them. If not, a vote means a lot more than a text or phone call or a protest.

“This is Ms. Pigette, and I approve this message.”