Election 2016 is about much more than the next four years.

Americans in my generation are deeply frustrated with the political system, and I’m afraid many are starting to give up. Professional politicians at the national level are so off-putting that many young people are saying they’ll sit out from voting altogether this year.

What if a whole generation of Americans gives up on political engagement? I don’t want to find out.

I’m excited to announce the launch of #VoteLocal, a grass-roots project in Iowa to inform voters about all the races on their ballots this fall, from Washington, D.C., to City Hall to the county courthouse.

#VoteLocal started as part of the Peters for Congress campaign, but this is not a partisan project. Whether you support my friend Christopher Peters in his race for U.S. Congress, I’m hoping you’ll get involved with #VoteLocal and help me make a difference in 2016.

#VoteLocal is online at Facebook.com/VoteLocalIowa. We are asking concerned Iowans to sign up so we can connect them to the whole list of races and candidates on their ballots, along with information about early and absentee voting.

It’s not hard to find facts and figures about young people’s distrust in the political process: A Harvard study last year showed just 17 percent of young Americans trust Congress; in a Fusion survey last year, nearly half of young respondents identified as independent or no-party, and several polls in the last few weeks say 30 to 40 percent of millennials plan on voting third-party in this year’s presidential election.

I can’t say I blame my peers for throwing their hands up at our political system. The politicians we’ve supported always seem to turn their backs on us once they’re in office.

The mainstream media are dangerously obsessed with the presidential election, but they rarely dig into other elections. That’s not an accident — it’s because both Republicans and Democrats have gradually chipped away at presidential constraints while their party is in the White House. Today, one elected official, along with nonelected bureaucrats, have a huge influence over nearly every part of our lives.

That’s not the way it’s supposed to be. Our form of government is meant to separate and decentralize power. The president, the Congress, and the courts have different roles. So do state, county, and city governments.

But because so many people are fixated on the presidency, important down-ballot races have become an afterthought for too many voters.

Even worse, it seems as if this election has made our political discourse even more hostile. Every single day, I see friends online take out their aggression against one another, trying to guilt or intimidate others into supporting one presidential candidate over another.

What if we spent half as much time learning about our local races as we do bickering about the presidential election?

Election Day is a little over a month away, but there’s still time to make a positive impact in your community in 2016. Even if you’re fed up with the presidential election, we have too many important issues; we can’t sit this election out altogether.

#VoteLocal is changing the way young people think about politics. If we want to save our country, we need to get involved and educate ourselves. I hope you’ll join me: Facebook.com/VoteLocalIowa.

— Robert Smith