It's almost over. The petitions have been signed, the signatures collected, certified and counted.

Money was raised – lots of it, more than $6 million for Question 1 alone. Advertising was produced, debates held and charge and countercharge exchanged.

All that's left today is for voters – those who haven't already used no-excuse absentee ballots or experimental early voting in some towns – to have their say in one of the most interesting and important off-year elections in Maine's recent history.

Yet, if projections are right, only a little more than one-third of us will go to the polls. That's a surprise, considering what's at stake.

A "yes" victory on Question 1 would use the people's veto to strike down a newly passed law that legalized same-sex marriage. A "no" victory would let the law go into effect and would represent the first time the marriage law was changed in this way by popular vote.

Questions 2 and 4, which would reduce the automobile excise tax and limit government spending through the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, would change the way state and local governments operate. Question 3 would send lawmakers back to the drawing board by repealing school district consolidation law.

Question 5 would fundamentally change the way that medical marijuana is distributed, using the citizen initiative process to go over the head of the medical and law enforcement authorities.

Question 6 would raise money for transportation projects, and Question 7 would make life a little easier for town clerks who have to certify all the signatures necessary to get all these measures on the ballot in the first place.

Yet, Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap predicts only about 35 percent voter turnout this year, less than we saw for the 2003 casino referendum and about what we saw in the 1997 forestry compact campaign. It's a small slice of the electorate getting to decide issues that affect everyone.

There is a solution, however. It's not too late for the other 65 percent of us. Today's the day: Get out and vote.