Municipal elections were held in five southern Nevada cities this week, and very few voters bothered to show up at the polls. Which has the media and political do-gooders gnashing their teeth and bemoaning the low interest level.
“This is sad,” wailed Las Vegas City Councilman Steve Ross (D-Big Labor) who won his re-election bid this week. “I’m making phone calls to people all day long and they don’t even know there’s an election.”
Hello?
Considering all the campaign signs littering every square foot of nearly every major intersection in every neighborhood – combined with the daily coverage of these elections in the local papers, local radio stations and local TV news broadcasts – not to mention all of the candidate campaigning which has been going on – do we really WANT people who didn’t know there was an election going on going to the polls? I mean, these people are obviously clueless.
Nevertheless, once again proposals are coming forward to fix this “problem” of low voter interest and participation. The latest is a bill by Assemblyman Tick Segerblom to move these odd-numbered year spring municipal elections to the even-numbered year fall elections – where the candidates and campaigns will get even LESS attention thanks to the higher profile races on the ballot for seats such as president, governor, senator and congressman.
Brilliant idea.
Yet Clark County Commissioner Larry Brown backs the proposal. “The determining factor would be convenience to the voter,” Brown tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “What process is going to get the most voter participation? That’s what we ideally aim for?”
Good grief. How much easier can we make it for voters? There’s a two week “early voting” window now available, or you can even skip that “inconvenience” and request an absentee mail-in ballot whether you’ll be in town or not on election day.
The fact is these people are not engaged in the issues or the campaigns. They don’t want to vote. They don’t care. The candidates and the offices mean nothing to them, their families or their daily lives. Making voting “easier” isn’t going to change those facts.
Why can’t we just leave these nice people who are happy in their ignorance alone and let the truly informed citizens among us make these important decisions? Get off their backs, will ya!
