The election is 8 days away (huzzah). Now is the time to start looking at who is running and start getting informed.

Newsday Voter's Guide (no access restrictions) http://politics.newsday.com/voters-guide/long-island/guide/nov-8-2016-general-election/

League of Women Voter's Voter Guide (customized to your address) http://www.vote411.org

In addition to POTUS, there are two Federal-level elections this year: NY Senate and all House seats. In addition, at the state level, the entire State Senate and State Assembly are up for re-election. There are judicial elections, and town-level elections as well.

If you don't think that state-level elections matter, the State Senate passed over 900 bills in the last 12 months. Some of them include bills about:

• streamlined application process for affiliates of licensed operators of adult care facilities and assisted living facilities

• severe child abuse and orders of protection in child abuse and neglect cases

• continuation of use of ignition interlock device where a person upon whom such use was imposed as a condition of probation remains delinquent

And that's just 3 bills. This shit matters.