The November elections are over. Thank God.

Many are unhappy with the results of the general election. The majority, however, has spoken. Like it or not, the American voters chose the men and women who will serve our interests in the city administration, State Capitol, Washington and abroad. For the next two, four and six years, those whom we have chosen are going to make decisions that will affect our lives from the War in Iraq to the price hike in our tuition.

While it seems that our civic responsibility ended with casting our vote at the polls, our duty goes further. We must observe the track records of the candidates whom we elected in order to ensure that these politicians deliver on the promises on which they spent millions of dollars in order to be elected.

During the months running up to election, everywhere you looked there were lawn signs, bumper stickers, TV commercials, radio ads and billboards endorsing Kerry, Bush, Nader, Baldwin, Michels and Feingold. The candidates tried to get their visions, opinions, and names out to the electorate. During the campaign, the candidates refined their vision of the future of their wards, districts, states and country.

Now, we have to hold them to it.

We Americans suffer from short-term memory. We listen to the news, watch the debates and discuss the issues. The country mobilized for this election and voted in record numbers. We analyzed the commercials on which the candidates spent millions. Two weeks ago, we voted and the electorate spoke.

I, however, have already noticed that we are forgetting the issues that were key to the election just a few months ago. We are enthralled by the guilty verdict in the Scott Peterson trial, the death of Yasser Arafat and the battle for Fallujah, but what is going on with the missing high-explosive munitions south of Baghdad? What is Congress doing about intelligence reform? What will the tuition hike actually be for next year? Will there be a draft? On MSNBC, which I watch every morning as part of my daily routine, these issues, which were so important just a couple of weeks ago, are now relegated to the back burner.

How do we keep up with the records of these newly elected and re-elected politicians? With the Internet there are numerous websites, such as www.factcheck.org (not to be confused with www.factcheck.com like Vice President Cheney did during his debate), that are tracking the candidates’ records. These websites may prove pivotal in the next election with their archives of candidates’ voting records and political agendas.

Most importantly, we must take the time to monitor this information. We must see if their campaign promises are being kept or broken. We must not forget their promises; otherwise, politicians possibly could do whatever they want here in Madison or in Washington. Keeping on top of politicians keeps them accountable; after all, they are representing the people’s interests in government, not the interests of lobbyists or their parties.

If we do not monitor the progress of our politicians, we will not be able to vote intelligently in the next election. Elections in recent memory have been extremely close. Every vote does count. An uninformed vote is not only wasted, it could turn the election and possibly turn it for the worse.

If you did not like whom we elected, keep tabs on him or her. If you do like the choices we made, still watch them. We must hold politicians responsible in 2006 and 2008 for the promises they made in 2004. We must fulfill our civic responsibility to oversee our democracy. Diligence will ensure that our political system serves the people and fulfills the promises upon which it was founded.

Jeff Carnes ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in linguistics.