Small-Time Civic Duty
Posted by Arwen Mosher in Just me on Wednesday, May 06, 2009 1:00 PM
On Election Day last November when I went to vote, I waited half an hour in line, and from what I heard about the experiences of others, I was lucky to wait such a short time.
Last evening when Bryan and I went to vote, we were the only voters there. One of the election workers came and held the door open for us, so excited was he to see two more faces. When they wrote our names on the log after we filled out our ballots, I noticed we were voters number 39 and 40. For the entire day.
It was a local election, a very small one: one school board member running unopposed, and four township millage renewals. As we walked into the polling place fifteen minutes before it closed, Bryan laughingly invited me to play a game he and his coworkers enjoy, called “Over/Under”: did I bet that there would have been over 50 voters that day, or under 50? I daringly picked “under” and I won!
Bryan and I try to educate ourselves about local issues and remember to make it to all the elections. In local elections there’s nothing hugely important - like life issues - at stake, but it’s nice to have a say in even the more mundane governmental details. And when the turnout is low, our votes count for so much more proportionately! It’s exciting to think that we counted today for 2% of the ballots cast in our precinct.
Frankly, too, I enjoy the process of voting! It’s been almost ten years since my first election, but I still get a little thrill using the pen to fill in the bubbles and sliding the ballot into the counting machine.
I can see, though, how it might not be worth it to go vote in every minor election. If we didn’t enjoy voting, or if we had more than two children to load in the car and take along with us, the hassle could outweigh the benefits. And it’s certainly arguable whether it makes a difference to vote on minor bureaucratic issues.
How do you feel about local elections? Are they worth it, or a waste of time?
Print Blog
Email a FriendPost a Comment
By submitting this form, you give Faith And Family Magazine permission to publish this comment. Comments will be published at our discretion, and may be edited for clarity and length. For best formatting, please limit your response to one paragraph and don't hit "enter" to force line breaks.
