I live in a state that didn’t even vote for its own Democratic native son, Al Gore, 12 years ago. Tennessee has grown redder with every passing year, to the point that a vote in any national or statewide election isn’t going to swing anything anywhere. Every four years, I hear a lot of ‘my vote doesn’t count’ being uttered (though thankfully it’s usually in the context of ‘I’m going to vote even though …’)

As a reporter in 2006, I was responsible for coverage of the race to replace a retiring Bill Frist in the U.S. Senate, a race that pitted Congressman Harold Ford, a democrat, against republican Bob Corker. It was a very, very close and at times ugly race ultimately won by Corker. Sen. Corker is up for re-election this year, and he’s barely lifted a finger to campaign because he hasn’t had to anything more. The Democratic Party had a hard time getting a candidate to run against him and ended up with a nominee who is crazy, was dubbed 2012’s worst candidate by the Washington Post and may be farther right than Corker himself. Whoops.

Here’s where your vote can count, and it doesn’t matter what party you root for or which way your state leans.

We all know that political parties are basically machines. There’s a power structure, and the people on top tend to make decisions about who to encourage to run for office and how money will be doled out to various campaigns. They tend to make these decisions based on the health of the party in any particular location. There are plenty of ways to determine just how healthy the party is, but one of the major ones is voter turnout.

So while my Democratic friends in Tennessee may think voting for a candidate that has no chance of winning the state’s electoral votes seems futile and a waste of their time, by showing up to the polls in spite of the futility, they’re giving the state Democratic party some leverage. The more Democrats that show up, the more the party at large might think Tennessee is worth a damn of their time or money.

And while this should be painfully obvious, their votes can make a huge difference in local and state races — and local and state politicians have a much more significant impact on your daily life than national politicians have. They decide on education, road projects, smoking bans and zoning rules. They orchestrate financial incentives to lure that really awesome company to town that may give you a job. And they have plenty of control over your taxes.

It’s not unheard of for these races to come down to a matter of a few votes, so you and a few of your friends may very well have the power to swing the results. Plus, the status of local politics is yet another way the parties decide how to dole out their resources. Of course, it’s not as common for people to pay close attention to local races as it once was. The easiest thing to do is spend just a little time — like five minutes — doing research on your local newspaper or alt weekly’s website. Many of them offer voter guides with just enough info to make an informed decision. You can also look up what races are on your ballot and where you’re supposed to vote with this handy Google tool.

It’s not as sexy as having a chance to vote a president in or out, but it means something. So whatever your politics and whatever your state’s political leanings, please for the love of all that is red, white and blue do not miss your chance to vote on Tuesday or any other Election Day.