Votes Count
Not voting makes a difference
| | December 12, 2007 15:15
By Kelvin Wade
By Kelvin Wade
This week Vallejo swore in its second mayor in a week's time, Osby Davis. His opponent, Gary Cloutier, had been certified the winner by four votes just days earlier. A manual recount found Davis winning by two votes. Cloutier filed for an emergency injunction against the county's certification of Davis' victory and his swearing in but it was refused by a judge. So now Cloutier, who alleges fraud during the recount, is going to court to seek relief.
Come on. Vallejo's been a city for 140 years and can't hold a mayoral election?
Why is voting and counting votes so difficult? We elect members of student government in schools. We elect people in clubs and social organizations. We elect union representatives. Why is it so difficult to run a municipal, state or federal election?
Perhaps it's because most of us don't care. Solano County saw a 36 percent voter turnout this past November. It's crazy that a little more than one out of three decided to make the decisions for the nearly other two-thirds of the population.
Usually we try to cajole, browbeat and shame our nonvoting citizens into doing their civic duty. In the future, we just have to point to the Vallejo mayoral election.
Every vote counts.
Looking closer at the results of the Vallejo vote: 24 votes were overvotes, where the voter marked more than one person as their choice and 128 were undervotes where the voter failed to make a choice. If the overvoters had been more careful and had the undervoters been inclined to pick a candidate, perhaps the city would've had a clearer winner.
So not only does every vote count, being careful in the polling booth is essential. This is a lesson that everyone should've learned seven years ago. Think about this, had just a few hundred Florida voters been more careful it would've changed the history of billions.
You think I'm putting too much on it? It would've changed tax policy, climate change policy, energy policy, government spending, stem cell research, morale and strength of our armed forces, international relations and our commitment to the U.S. Constitution.
And it would've made the difference between thousands being killed or maimed.
Not voting makes a difference. And we can laugh about dimpled, pregnant and hanging chads, but those overvotes and undervotes cost us.
While looking over Vallejo's vote totals, I decided to give Fairfield's a perusal and was shocked at what I found. Fairfield had 88 overvotes but more than 3,000 undervotes. Three thousand? Why would three thousand people go to the trouble of voting and not select a choice in the City Council race? We've got to do better than that. The stakes are too high.
No matter how the Vallejo mayoral race is eventually adjudicated, no one can say it's not important to vote or who you vote for. From informing ourselves, going to the polling place, being meticulous in the polling booth and having our votes counted in a way that gives credibility to the result, it's all important.
When government asks your opinion, get off the sidelines and get on the field. Peace.
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To go to the DR's Other Side blog to read "Think Before You Drink" and "Santa Traumatized by Beagles" CLICK HERE.
To go to the Wading In blog to read me and my brother's take on holiday movies, CLICK HERE.
Come on. Vallejo's been a city for 140 years and can't hold a mayoral election?
Why is voting and counting votes so difficult? We elect members of student government in schools. We elect people in clubs and social organizations. We elect union representatives. Why is it so difficult to run a municipal, state or federal election?
Perhaps it's because most of us don't care. Solano County saw a 36 percent voter turnout this past November. It's crazy that a little more than one out of three decided to make the decisions for the nearly other two-thirds of the population.
Usually we try to cajole, browbeat and shame our nonvoting citizens into doing their civic duty. In the future, we just have to point to the Vallejo mayoral election.
Every vote counts.
Looking closer at the results of the Vallejo vote: 24 votes were overvotes, where the voter marked more than one person as their choice and 128 were undervotes where the voter failed to make a choice. If the overvoters had been more careful and had the undervoters been inclined to pick a candidate, perhaps the city would've had a clearer winner.
So not only does every vote count, being careful in the polling booth is essential. This is a lesson that everyone should've learned seven years ago. Think about this, had just a few hundred Florida voters been more careful it would've changed the history of billions.
You think I'm putting too much on it? It would've changed tax policy, climate change policy, energy policy, government spending, stem cell research, morale and strength of our armed forces, international relations and our commitment to the U.S. Constitution.
And it would've made the difference between thousands being killed or maimed.
Not voting makes a difference. And we can laugh about dimpled, pregnant and hanging chads, but those overvotes and undervotes cost us.
While looking over Vallejo's vote totals, I decided to give Fairfield's a perusal and was shocked at what I found. Fairfield had 88 overvotes but more than 3,000 undervotes. Three thousand? Why would three thousand people go to the trouble of voting and not select a choice in the City Council race? We've got to do better than that. The stakes are too high.
No matter how the Vallejo mayoral race is eventually adjudicated, no one can say it's not important to vote or who you vote for. From informing ourselves, going to the polling place, being meticulous in the polling booth and having our votes counted in a way that gives credibility to the result, it's all important.
When government asks your opinion, get off the sidelines and get on the field. Peace.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
To go to the DR's Other Side blog to read "Think Before You Drink" and "Santa Traumatized by Beagles" CLICK HERE.
To go to the Wading In blog to read me and my brother's take on holiday movies, CLICK HERE.
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