Speaking of mediocre voter turnout, my friend and city commission candidate Ashley Allen reports that so far on what he calls a beautiful spring day, turnout for Madison's municipal election is 6.5%. That's with less than four hours left to go vote.
Really, people? Five interesting candidates to choose from, representing an interesting cross-section of Madison ages and interests, and that's all the interest we have so far?
Voters around the state, I welcome your reports of voter turnout at your local polling places on this municipal election day. I hope we hear some higher numbers as quitting time approaches!
You get the government you ask for. Declining to vote does not absolve you of blame; it lays the blame on you for not picking someone better. Get out and vote!
This is the election that Mr. H's poll had probably at least that many people vote in. It will be interesting to compare the outcome of the real voting to those polls
Interesting is a very diplomatic way to describe us. :)
Promote progress in Madison and get to the polls, people!
Madison City Election - Overall
Kelly Johnson - 290
Gene Hexom - 251
Jennifer Wolff - 280
Ashley Kenneth Allen - 223
Jeremiah Corbin - 406
I am going off topic a bit here, Cory. I apologize. In the Sioux Falls City election today, people waited in long lines for 45 minutes or more to cast their vote. This is what happens when you use voting centers instead of precincts. South Dakota Republicans are no different than those at the national level when it comes to limiting our right to vote. In addition, the political affiliations of those running for mayor, city council and school board were noticeably absent. Knowing if these people are Democrats, Republicans or Independents is pertinent ballot information, is it not?
I had hoped for Mr. Ashley Kenneth Allen to win. I would have voted for him here if I could have. The real vote doesn't seem to parallel the mock vote conducted on this blog site. I do not know what to make of that.
SD Blue: Those position are supposed to be non-political. Actual I once had a friend point out that Republicans wanted to demand that party affiliations be included on elections like the school board, so he would know that the right person for whom to vote. Things like the school board or city office (or any office) should not be based on the party but the person and her or his ideas!
MJL: All elections are political. Being mayor, or a city council member, is not a "non-political" position. While I vote ideas as well as political affiliation, I think it is important to know which political philosophy our elected leaders subscribe to, no matter what position of leadership they hold.
Secretary Gant has been touting the "voting centers" for elections for several years. It looks like they were a failure. There is no reason someone in South Dakota has to stand in line for nearly an hour to vote.
Thank You Madison!
Thank you, Jeremiah, for your willingness to serve! What's you plan for the first 100 Days? Free water for everyone? Building the Creekside Greenway across the entire length of the city? What are we going to do?
Mr. Corbin, might I suggest a community poll about what they'd like to do, sort of a cyber democratic experiment where ordinary citizens can have a say in city government as the first thing to do?
Then, I think Madison should open a city run thrift store.
Water will always be free. Treatment and distribution (and fire protection) is what we pay for.
Voter turn out in Sioux Falls over 30%. :)
What brings those big city Sioux Fallsers out at a higher rate than small-town, neighborly Madisonians?
Well, they've got ballot questions, for one.
Bree is right. The last school renovation vote had around 33% turnout, and the aquatic center vote was around 24%.
I'm guessing if someone thinks water will always be free,he or she has never heard of T Boone Pickens. He owns more water rights(for profit) than anyone and sells water back to cities at a pretty good price-for himself.
They'd like to tax the water. Soon, they'll want to tax the air.
Matt, that's interesting. Those turnout numbers suggest that Madison voters are more interested in issues than in personalities. But am I mistaken in saying that when we are voting for candidates, the candidates' discussion of issues seems irrelevant to the outcome, and that the fewer people who do show up at the polls vote mostly on name and image? Did issues resonate in this municipal election? What won the vote for Kelly and Jeremiah?
By the way, 33% participation is still dismal.
I don't think it's breaking news that people vote out of emotion (mostly negative emotion). I don't think there was any issue in Madison this year that had people really fired up.
It is interesting to note that the two candidates who showed the most fire, maybe even anger, in the candidate forum received the least number of votes. Perhaps something to be said for toning down the rhetoric.
Oh, and agreed on the 33%.
One thing that occurred to me when I voted yesterday and saw how few voters were there - actually, just me and Allan at the time - is that in America, voting is on a Tuesday, from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Which seems fine, except that Tuesday is a workday for almost all the employed, and these days, a lot of places work 10 or 12 hour shifts. There is no mandate, much less a law, for employers to give employees time off to go vote. So it is getting harder and harder for many working people to go vote. So some of our abysmal voter turn-out might be due to that.
Oh, and congratulations, Jeremiah and Kelly!
Tone down the rhetoric? Gosh, Matt, then what's the fun in running?
Eve, does the availability of early voting temper that workday concern?
You can't tone down the truth, especially if your goal is to destroy misleading rhetoric.
I don't know that early voting tempers my concern, mainly because a lot of people still don't know about it. And again, in order to vote early, you have to be able to go to the courthouse between 8:00-5:00 PM.
True, Eve! You still need time off work to early vote. I'm o.k. with moving election day to Saturday, but if we can't change that statute, how about we get our local courthouses to be open on one or two Saturdays before the election to accommodate early voting? That wouldn't require a statutory fix. As the Madison Central School Board showed, they can make their election officer available to take votes outside office hours at basketball games; county officials ought to be able to follow suit with Saturday voting.
One thing I learned (too late, unfortunately) is that I (we?) needed to do a better job educating voters about early voting. I was surprised (and disappointed) by the number of supporters I talked to that didn't vote because they weren't able to make it to the polls yesterday. They didn't realize they had a two-week period during which they could have voted at their convenience at the City Finance office.
Those that aren't able to make it in person to city hall (such as my husband) can mail their absentee ballot request, or have someone else drop it off for them. This requires planning ahead a little bit, but that really takes care of most of the excuses for not being able to vote.
Sounds like early voting matters, Jennifer! Your experience tells me that's a conversation you should have with every voter. Maybe even have those early voting instructions on the back of whatever card or flyer you put in folks' hands: front side, "Vote for Me!"; back side, dates, hours, and location of early voting.
More information is always good, especially about voting. For that matter, instead of just assuming that everyone knows "if it's a city election, it's at the Armory; county at 4-H; national at the DPP", how about telling them, in LARGE PRINT, in the newspaper, on the Madison portal website, etc.? There's lots of people who are new to town and have no idea of ancient customs. Plus there's the fact that every once in a while, they switch locations. (I remember one memorable occasion where the powers that be unexpectedly put an election out at the 4-H club that had more than county issues on the ballot - and didn't particularly announce it well, resulting in very low turnout...)