Interesting editorial in this morning's Standard-Examiner.
It's entitled "The Stay at Home Vote" and it laments, at some length, the low voter turnouts across the Top of Utah in the recent municipal elections, elections in which voters probably [the editorial correctly notes] can have more of an impact on their daily lives than in other larger elections.
It begins by quoting H. L. Mencken [usually a wise thing for an editorial to do]: Mencken... opined that "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." And it goes on to bemoan with a pessimism boarding on resignation low turnouts that, the SE says, "almost make us want to give up trying." Ogden's turnout was 15%.
OK, nothing unusual about that. Newspapers and talking-head TV newsreaders bemoan low turnouts regularly. What sets the Std-Ex editorial apart is that it then discusses what is in the US usually considered to be a radical, and faintly unAmerican notion by many: that perhaps the willfully ignorant [meaning those who don't keep up with public events, who don't read newspapers regularly] should not be encouraged to vote. That perhaps the best thing the willfully ignorant can do for the Republic is stay well away from the ballot box. The Std-Ex does not agree with that POV, but it gives it a full and fair discussion in the editorial.
From the editorial:
If we seem a little cranky, it's because we've seen the low voter turnout numbers for the Top of Utah communities that held primary elections on Tuesday; we are passionate about our part of the state, but it almost makes us want to give up trying. The expectations of local officials are so diminished, have been so beaten down over the years of voter apathy, that Perry City Recorder Susan Obray told our reporter she was "really pleased" by her city's 18 percent turnout.Interesting editorial. Chewy. Worth the reading, I think, and worth some thought. And for those engaged in the coming November ballot, the Std-Ex editorial contains a reminding they will ignore at their peril: Turnout is everything. If you don't get your people to the polls in greater numbers than the other guys, it doesn't matter if you've won the debate on points, or had the better arguments, or even if you have convinced most Ogdenites your way would be the best way. If the other candidate gets more of his people off their couches and out to the polling place, he will win. Turnout is everything. It's the endgame, and without a successful endgame you can't win a chess match... or an election.
We mean no disrespect to her, but less than 1 in 5 voters bothering to vote is nothing short of shameful, and Perry voters did better than any other city in Weber or Box Elder counties....
It's just ugly and sad, and maybe Mencken was right -- maybe that's exactly what we deserve.
