By David Stanczak
For voters in Bloomington, today is the day after the primary election. If you complain about being confronted with decisions to make on all those offices and propositions that you know nothing about, this was your election. There was only one thing to consider: which 3 of the 5 announced mayoral candidates won’t be on the ballot in April. The paucity of races and issues was reflected in the turnout. When I voted, there was no need to shop for a parking space close to the building so as not to get rained on, no waiting line to get a ballot (the election officials weren’t playing Scrabble, but they had time to), and a very short time in the voting booth.
Usually around election time, I badger people about getting to the polls. It’s too late to do that for yesterday’s primary. But the election and the low turnout give us all something to ponder. Elections are a numbers game. The candidate or issue with the most votes wins, and those wins have consequences, because the winners run things. The larger the turnout, the more likely it is that the election results accurately reflect the wishes of the people; the lower the turnout, the less likely the election is to be reflective. But reflective or not, the election result is the only poll that counts, and it’s final. Because of low turnout, a candidate or issue with an intense following, by delivering a relatively small group of votes, can produce a result that is unrepresentative of popular opinion and preference. We have ward representation in Bloomington, not because of a massive groundswell of support, but because the people promoting it turned out in large numbers, while a complacent majority didn’t bother to vote in a low turnout election. The proposition won by 24 votes.
You don’t have to vote. But keep in mind that, if you don’t, you are saying that whatever is decided at the polls by all those lame-brained dunderheads you know (and you know who they are) is okay with you. If your preferred mayoral candidate survived the primary, congratulate yourself on your good luck, but don’t take any chances in April. If he or she didn’t, you may kick yourself in the butt, or get someone else to do it. I’d offer to help, but we can’t advertise services on Forums.
The quotation that “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty” didn’t refer to elections, but it might have.
David Stanczak, a Forum commentator since 1995, came to Bloomington in 1971. He served as the City of Bloomington’s first full-time legal counsel for over 18 years, before entering private practice. He is currently employed by the Snyder Companies and continues to reside in Bloomington with his family.
The opinions expressed within WJBC’s Forum are solely those of the Forum’s author, and are not necessarily those of WJBC or Cumulus Media Inc.
