Twenty percent. Or think of your hand, minus four digits. Sure, if you kept the middle finger you could still flip off the world (or order one beer), but your saxophone playing would greatly suffer.
That's the state of voting today in southwest Missouri. Greene County Clerk Richard Struckhoff predicts a 20-percent turnout among registered voters in Tuesday's primary election.
One person in five will decide the fate of a sales tax extension for parks in Greene County. One person in five will have a voice in selecting state representatives for everyone. On Wednesday, many non-voters will cluck and pule over the results.
Shameful doesn't even begin to describe the situation.
What will it take to get more people to vote? Serious question in search of serious answers.
12 comments:
Here is an frightening thought. If 20% of Registered voters vote and 60% of those vote in the Republican primary and two Republican candidates are competing for a position then a candidate only needs 6% of registered voters plus one to win the nomination. If there are three candidates the required percentage drops. In a democratic primary where only 40% of voters may vote the required percentages of Registered voters required will be smaller. These are registered voters. The unregistered also are not included so the 5 of the entire population required to win is even smaller.
DON'T FORGET TO VOTE.
Sooooooo...Ron, let's begin discussing how Springfield Bloggers can address this issue more specifically, i.e. move from the cyber world to the corporal world.
--A. Cline
Here is a link to download the registration form.
www.stlouisco.com/elections/VOTER_REG_APP.pdf
You guys will probably get slammed by a bunch of anonymous idiots with a ton of "What makes you think you're important enough to make a difference?" comments just like you did before with your public forum idea.
So consider this a preemptive strike...
Some of us appreciate the effort no matter what the outcome may be.
We understand that change doesn't happen on it's own. Someone needs to begin to make an effort to bring it. Why shouldn't it be you?
I wonder what the hate mail senders have done lately to attempt to make a diference in their world?
They vote.
Sure, people are entitled to their views and thoughts, but please, for the love of God, if you don't care enough to vote, or don't bother registering to vote, then don't gripe.
Any thoughts on the story in the News-Leader today on the Sheriff making a collar? He was speaking at a Republican rally and saw the suspect, who was about to be introduced to speak as a candidate.
You may have missed this gem- another big loss by the NL for bad placement.
Cluck and pule?!?!?
Jeezus, boy, put down your William F. Buckley pills and your copy of Roget's. You're not impressing anyone.
On making a difference, Reading blogs like these keeps elections in my mind so I remember to get my ass out and vote, otherwise old white people (I am white also,but young) will decide everything for me...Keep on writing about and discussing the issues
At 5:00 p.m. I was voter #156 at my polling place - the church at the corner of Mt. Vernon and Campbell.
As an aside, the News-Leader has shown that they're really Republican biased or the sloppiest news organization ever. This page for Greene County in the election section didn't mention even one Democratic contender in any of the county races.
I was also #156 at my polling place in Springfield.
I spent many college years working in the political science department, much of it taking roll for the Poli Sci 101 class. Many of the profs were immigrants from Eastern European countries. One such professor, Frank Dinka, made a comment in class that has always stuck with me:
"If the US ever has 75%-80% voter turnout, then something is so very wrong here that I will be looking for somewhere else to live."
So many are so apathetic that even with current conditions we still have the low turnout. How much worse would it be to reach what the professor predicted?
From one of his many former students, here's a toast to Frank Dinka. What a wonderful human being he was, God rest his soul.
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