Is voting wortwhile if you live in a solid state?

[Erc]

Where I live, the major races were all boring as hell...

There was never any question that Kerry, Schumer, Lowey, and Paulin were going to win.

However, we had a rather interesting three-way State Senate race (Republican v. Democrat v. Conservative--the conservative was a Democrat who tried to get the Republican nomination and failed) after our former Senator got put in prison a couple times.  The real Democrat won, but narrowly.

The State Senate race next door, the Republican won by 17 votes...not decided till February.

Up in Irvington, they still haven't figured out who won the election for mayor.  The Democrat challenger was up by one vote, but then one absentee vote got thrown out, so now it's tied.  I think the current mayor (Republican) is still running the town as if he won re-election--personally I don't think this will be settled before the next election.

So, yes, your votes do matter, even when you're in a supposedly "safe" area.

And if you are in a ridiculously "safe" area, odds are you'll have interesting primaries from time to time, if not general elections.