Regular readers of my twice-weekly columns (Hi Dan the opinion editor!) may recall my frequent harping on the importance of local government in the lives of Coloradans, while we tend to focus far too much attention on the national-level politics that impacts our lives less dramatically. But a recent story in the Colorado Springs Gazette illustrates the importance of local stuff convincingly.

Gazette reporter Jakob Rodgers wrote about the request from El Paso County Department of Public Health officials for more money, though this story is generalizable to the good folks in any of Colorado’s 64 counties. Rodgers reports that health officials in Colorado Springs have asked for a quarter of a million more dollars to meet rising demands for services.

If you ask most Coloradans what their local health department does for them, they likely will be stumped for an answer other than perhaps checking local restaurants for cleanliness. But, in fact, the good folks at the health department do a great deal more, and we Coloradans often make their jobs more difficult.

Sure, food safety is an important part of the public health mission. But these experts are also charged with keeping an eye on infectious diseases that – because far too many parents are believing the pseudo-science claims by anti-vaccination zealots – should have long since disappeared from the American scene. They also have divisions that promotes overall health, provide various health services, and support environmental health goals.

Folks who work in public health are like – stay with me now – football referees. If they do their jobs well, you likely don’t think about them very much. Only when things go very wrong does the public at large focus on the public health folks. For example, a measles outbreak (entirely preventable if parents would properly vaccinate) would fall to the health department to manage. They also inspect child care facilities, oversee the Women, Infants and Children program, and they’ll help you quit smoking.

So why am I telling you all about the public health department? Simply because it illustrates a point that can’t be made too often: local stuff matters. Former Speaker of the U.S. House Tip O’Neill once famously observed, “all politics is local politics.” He was right. Folks usually care more about potholes than they care about our policies in Afghanistan. Thus, the public health story, a story that most readers likely skipped past, may actually have been one of the most important stories in the Gazette that day. Government agencies compete for funds, and at the local level there is never enough for all the needs. And since the public health department’s funding is a mash-up of grants, donations, county funds, and more, there is always a scramble to keep us safe. For example, the story notes a grant to help stop teen suicides runs out in June of next year, meaning that program’s future is in doubt.

The same story could also be told about quite a few other county and state agencies, that largely do their work quietly and out of public site. Yet these same agencies compete for funds and your attention regularly. Do you like walking your dog in a park? There is a county agency that takes care of that for you. Do you like going to the county fair? More government! How about helping veterans, and homeless vets in particular? The VA certainly has a role, but so does your local county government.

So why am I blathering on about the importance of state, county, and local governments? The answer likely arrived in your mail earlier – your ballot. Regardless of your political point of view, I urge you to, as we politics nerds say, “vote down ballot.” That simply means going all the way to the end and making an informed vote on every candidate and every issue. The blue book you received will help, and you can easily find internet sites that can help explain what the various campaigns mean. And don’t forget to vote on the judges, but only after you read the blue book and other evidence.

The public health department is only one shining example of ways in which your government works for you. But that government only works when a well-informed and motivated public engage with the ballot. So, don’t forget to vote all the way down the ballot. Oh, and get a flu shot too, if you can.