While the country and the world focus on an important presidential election, it’s important to keep in mind that choosing the president is only one of our civic obligations. Local races for state legislature are also critical and arguably have more of an effect on the lives of our communities than the occupant of the White House.

Take any issue — education, health care, the environment, drug laws — and Albany controls all of it. 

Unfortunately, our so-called "lawmakers" are better known for the avoidance of their collective responsibility for lawmaking, and for their silent collusion in a legislative system that renders the participation of an individual representative virtually irrelevant. If all the legislators left town, no one would much notice as long as the speaker of the Assembly, the majority leader of the state Senate, and the governor stayed behind. They are the "three men in the room" who decide everything. 

The Empire State’s dysfunctional legislature has been well documented in newspaper editorials and a new report by the Brennan Center at New York 

University that rates it the worst in the country. 

So why vote for these lawmakers-in-name-only? Because they are, for better or worse, a permanent part of our democratic system and the more voters there are in these races the more accountable the politicians will be. 

The state legislature is probably the least known level of government, probably because it’s not the subject of high school civics lessons (in Texas, it’s required) and because of how little gets done in Albany. 

But not voting on critical issues like the reform of the draconian Rockefeller drug laws or a fairer system for funding New York City schools is an action that legislators should be held accountable for. 

Of course, it doesn’t end with voting. Get to know your state legislators. Learn their positions. Hold them accountable. After all, you pay their salaries.