Election day was today. I'd almost forgotten, as I did early voting on Monday. Now, the polls are closed, the counts are in, and I'm appalled by the results.
In Longview, we didn't have any offices being voted on, just 7 propositions: 5 for tax bonds and 2 related to liquor laws. I voted "no" to all the proposals, but all except one passed. I'll admit that it doesn't make me any happier, but what I'm appalled about was the turnout.
The total voting count for the election was <7,000, in a city of somewhere around 75,000. 10% of the people decided what the other 90% should do. To compare to that, the French presidential elections got an 85% turnout a week ago.
Now, I realize that a local ballot is nothing compared to a national presidency. However, it still makes me wonder, when did voting become an unimportant act? In this republic of ours, we don't really get a say in what goes on in the big picture. People like to think that they can contact their member of Congress and that what they ask that person to do will affect his or her vote, but in truth that's wishful thinking, unless the vast majority of fellow constituents also express their opinion in the same way (and oftentimes, even that doesn't matter). The closest we come to that is in a presidential election, when we vote for our representative to the Electoral College. My opinion expressed to Louis Gohmert ain't worth jack squat.
The only place where I really have any hope of being heard is at a very local level. And to see that only 10% of my fellow citizens feel the same shows how far we are from restoring any control over this nation.
I'm not really that mad that I lost this round. I'm mad that so few people care enough to spend 10 minutes checking out what the issues were, and another 30 minutes to go punch a few buttons at a polling booth. We have become so lazy that an hour of our time is too much to spare for our civic duty.
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