I know it has been shoved down your throat enough at this point, passed the bursting point of your stomach. Your mouth has overflowed from all of the hope, change, real change, and change we can’t believe in, but here’s one last plea before the general public disregards politics for three and a half more years: Please, pleeeeeeeease vote next Tuesday, November 4.

Forget about 2004; this is the most important election of your life, of your very existence, and this time, they mean it. Prepare an ‘80s montage mixtape for your jukebox as you enter the voting booth, showcasing your rise to knowledge and rigor mortis grip on your destiny. Pull the curtain open with wholehearted, American pride, as you imagine launching your least favorite candidate clear into the ocean with that very lever.

But in order to determine the proper candidate to send swimming with the sharks, this game of propaganda, doublespeak, and misquoting has required quite a non-partisan safety net in order to figure out who truly holds your ideals close. Luckily, we are witnessing the beginning of the end of the political standard of smear campaigns and scare tactics in politics. Thanks to the growing popularity of non-partisan fact checking (and major news organizations finally jumping on top of such tactics and creating their own versions of fact-checking), alongside the advent of new tools such as YouTube since the last election, those who want to be in the know and cast an educated vote on November 4, will finally have the (convenient) ability to do so.

I’m not saying it wasn’t possible before, nor have we seen any less mudslinging in this campaign, but never has it been easier to find out the true nature of your political hero (or villain) than in today’s wired world, as long as you know where to look, of course. Much like television, the internet can be as chock-full of falsified claims, based solely on what was up a certain blogger’s ass after his morning batch of Wheaties was too soggy. Chain e-mails have led us to many “facts” such as how Barack Obama leads a secret life as a Muslim (which shouldn’t matter anyway) and would rather play basketball than shake hands with troops, or that John McCain crashed five planes while serving in the military. Some attacks are malicious, while others are just meant as jokes, taken way out of context (a sad tactic on both sides).

Why vote? With the Electoral College showing no signs of being abolished and voter turnout on the rise, your voice may feel futile at best. I vote on technicality. The Declaration of Independence sets up our government as one that derives all of its power from the consent of the governed. By forfeiting your right to consent, not only do you give away any privilege to bitch about how things aren’t as you feel they should be, but you also give the government an absolute right to do whatever the hell they want. This is all worst-case scenario, but I’m sure many weren’t thinking about it while failing to figure out the differences between G. Dubbs and Al Gore.

Don’t allow yourself to be bullied by “Big Brother.” It’s an important time in American history, and all of the necessary tools to make a well-informed opinion on the situation at hand are right at your fingertips. The technology couldn’t have come at a better time. At the very least, educating yourself on the issues can put you in the position to stand up for what you feel is right and possibly open others’ eyes as well, crushing apathy and getting more people behind you in a viral effect. This is the true path to change, one that you cannot go down unless you vote next Tuesday. Open your eyes, step past your biases, make the best possible decision that leans towards your own priorities, and then cue a Mark Snow score as you discover that the truth… is out there.