Yes, that's right: it was election day again for my part of Texas. Only one item on my ballot, however...the election in my precinct was only for one of the "trustees" in the local community college districts -- apparently I'm in district 7 of the community college district. My local school district also had elections, but not in my "place" within the district; other local school districts (we have quite a few) had bond measures today. Also, the local suburbs, or at least some of them, had municipal elections today. But in my precinct, just the one item. I voted a few hours ago, and I was the 13th voter from my precinct...I have no idea how many eligible voters and registered voters live here, but I'm pretty sure it's a lot more than 13. Odds are the turnout will be in the single digits -- I doubt it will be as high as 8%. That's American democracy for you! I have no idea why they don't coordinate this round of elections with either the primary or general elections for most offices, but I can say that there was no visible electioneering that I noticed for the community college board, although there were plenty of yard signs over in the local suburb, where they were electing an Alderman.
Let's see...I voted 52 times in early March, twice in mid-April, and now once more in early May. That's 55 marks on the ballot so far this year.
How does one decide who to pick for a local school district election when one didn't even know it was coming? (I ask rhetorically.) Those tiny local elections that only garner 2-3% of eligible voters are often the ones with a substantial impact on local quality of life.
ReplyDeleteI guess that is how America is ending up with textbooks purged of the contributions of Thomas Jefferson to the Enlightenment in favor of John Calvin.
First you start with the school boards....
Indeed. For me, in this election, I was lucky -- my wife had met one of the candidates at some event, and was Facebook friendly with her, and so that's who we voted for. But if we had been in the contested school district district, well, it would have been wild guess time, most likely.
ReplyDeleteAlthough on the plus side, with only one or two things on the ballot, it's vaguely possible to research a bit about the candidates. On the March ballot, with >50 choices, no one is going to put in that amount of time.
It would be very nice if the school board elections were partisan, so that those of us on one side or another of evolution and fact-based history could at least make an educated guess.