close

Flip of a coin or ‘Eenie meenie miney moe’?

4 min read

I was casting my ballot Tuesday thinking about the process I was participating in. I’ve written about this before in this column. The low turnout was already predicted before the polls ever opened. I wondered about this while I was voting. Why is it that more people weren’t out there selecting the persons who are making decisions that affect them?

People want to complain about decisions made by school boards, but with large numbers of seats up in some of the districts, including my own of Carmichaels, where were the parents whose children attend these schools?

What about township supervisor races? Are you one of the people who say that they don’t take good enough care of your roads, crime issues, snow removal, etc.? Did you vote on Tuesday? If you didn’t…ask yourself why that is.

If you did vote, did you know who you were voting for? Who are these people and what are their respective stances on the issues that affect you?

We saw campaign signs peppering the county for weeks with names that may or may not be familiar to us. Today I asked myself how I could have been a more informed voter.

I am a transplant to Carmichaels so it is a little different for me here than, say, in the Jefferson-Morgan area, where I grew up. On a recent drive through there I was nodding and shaking my head the whole way looking at the names of those running. With communities being as tight-knit as they are in Greene County, I knew all of those running in my former district.

But, what about the people like myself who didn’t start out where they are now? How do we get to know the candidates who don’t bother to introduce themselves to us?

Taking it a step further…What about the races for judges and other offices that offer up candidates from as far away as Philadelphia for us to choose from? How can we make an educated voting decision in these cases?

Do people vote by the name they like? Do women vote only for women and men only for men? Are they selecting the person who gives away the best handout outside of the polling places? I wonder…Just how are these decisions being made?

What, if anything can be done to change this?

We can all ask about a candidate from their friend or neighbor, but there is nothing like hearing something from the horse’s own mouth.

I submit that candidates for public office should be required to present a platform along with their petition for office that should be made public record.

I envision standardized questionnaires for candidates filing for school directors, sheriff, tax collectors and others that pertain to the pertinent issues of their office. This would make sure that everyone answers the same questions about the issues of the respective offices that they seek.

All of these documents should be available for those who choose to be a better educated voter.

Back to those kids who we are voting for – or not voting for, as the case may be – we are missing the ball by not involving them.

When they graduate from high school, are the students in our county schools educated about the voting process? Do they know how to register and where their respective polling place is located? Are they in complete understanding of the magnitude of what it means to cast that ballot? Since it appears the vast majority of adults are not, I would say that answer is no.

Tying this back to history (as my column is about history): We need to remember those who came before us who fought for the right to vote, a right that so many of us, unfortunately, take for granted on Election Day.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $4.79/week.

Subscribe Today