There are two strong editorial pieces in this morning's Standard-Examiner, each of them propounding the laudable theme of "getting out the vote" for tomorrow's Emerald City Municipal Election.
First, the SE editors bemoan the low turnout in last September's northern Utah municipal primary elections, singling out the city of Layton, which generated a turnout "well below 10%." Ogden City voters did even worse, of course, with turnout of only a measly 9%:
• OUR VIEW: Urge others to voteYes, fellow lumpencitizens, we can and should do much better than that.
So the Standard has come up with a great idea, we think, an old-fashioned election day phone tree.
Not a bad idea indeed. Yes, gentle readers; we do recommend that you take a little time out of your busy election day tomorrow, to contact your friends and neighbors. And we don't care who these folks vote for, so long as it's Bart Blair, Jesse Garcia, Doug Stephens and Susan Van Hooser.
This morning's SE also features another most excellent "Top of Utah Voices" guest commentary from the ever-savvy Allison Barlow-Hess:
• Vote, but don't forget your identificationMs. Barlow-Hess has whipped together a fine civics lesson on the importance of participating in the local election process, and for good measure puts the focus on the ethic of regarding the voting franchise as a civic duty rather than a right. But Ogden voters must not skip over this important nuts-and-bolts admonition, offered by Ms. Barlow-Hess:
... "don't forget your identification!"
With our 2007 general election still fresh in our minds, Ogden voters are all still stinging from the memory of the Matthew Godfrey campaign's November 4, 2007 election day dirty tricks, whereby (among other things,) Boss Godfrey operatives submitted blanket voter challenge lists and engaged in other voter suppression efforts which resulted in the issuance of an astounding 700 provisional ballots. Who among our gentle readers can forget the travails of Dorothy Littrell on election day 2007, who was required to make three separate trips to her polling place to finally obtain the issuance of her provisional ballot? We're sure there were others in similar predicaments, of course, who didn't receive publicity; and nobody can be sure either whether Ms. Littrell's vote ever got counted, or how many challenged voters simply walked away from their neighborhood polling-places without voting at all.
In the end, and after a lengthy investigation, the Utah ACLU issued this press release and this blistering 17-page report, with findings that the misconduct of Godfrey's operatives had indeed "marred the 2007 municipal election." Of course by that time the damage had been irreparably done, and there were in truth no available post-election remedies.
Let's play it smart this go-round, Emerald City lumpencitizens. When you show up at the polls tomorrow, (torches and pitchforks in hand,) be sure to be "packing" two forms of ID... at least one with your picture on it.
A word to the wise ought to be sufficient.
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