Jefferson Weeps
On Tuesday, all over the state, people had the opportunity to vote for Public Service Commission. Of the over 3,500,000 eligible to vote, only 225,000 showed up. It is amazing that even when an election DIRECTLY effects the pocketbook, we still don’t come out.
One volunteer who was working the polls yesterday cried because only 16 people hit his precinct all day. 16. Some counties averaged as low as 11 voters per precinct.
In the metro area, Dekalb County did the best. They turned out an average of 84 voters per precinct. Frighentingly, Dekalb and Fulton turned out the same number of voters (Roughly 15,900 for each country), but Fulton has nearly twice the number of precincts and voters registered. They averaged 47 voters per precinct. Cobb did slightly better with 51 voters per precinct. and Clayton had 53 voters per precinct. Remember that the polls were open for 12 hours yesterday. That means in Fulton County there was less than one voter every 15 minutes.
The true patriots voted yesterday. Regardless of party, regardless of the race, We know there are only 225,000 dedicated Georgians and Americans.
Why list who won? You don’t care… and that’s just sad.
December 6th, 2006 at 2:33 pm
Yeah, that blows. I’m not sure folks realized a runoff was in the works for yesterday. Hell, most folks don’t even know the PSC exists.
/walked to the polling booth
//2 miles
///through traffic
////and slashies
December 6th, 2006 at 8:30 pm
This might be a good argument to get rid of the non-majority requirement. Having this as a state-wide election cost us $1.2 million. My neighborhood is usually pretty involved politically and when I went at 6:30pm, I was number 34 to vote.
December 6th, 2006 at 8:57 pm
Well, hmmm… I’m not sure if a volunteer actually crying over low voter turnout is appropriate, although I’m sure I would have bawled if the Republicans had retained control of Congress due to the same sort of apathy on the part of Democrats. Phoenix metro turned out nearly 70% out of 3.5 million residents, defeated some rather rediculous propositions, and passed some other good ones. All this in a region known more for sun n fun than standing in some boring old line….
w
December 6th, 2006 at 11:32 pm
I would have voted, but I don’t know where to look for candidate information. I couldn’t find it on Votesmart.org, I don’t get the newspaper, and I asked google to no avail. Furthermore, I had no idea what either of these people’s stances were. I actually wanted to vote, but I had no idea how to make an informed one. How do you know this stuff?
December 6th, 2006 at 11:39 pm
Ok, let me revise. I saw your info in the previous post just now, and I don’t like either of the candidates. Further, how will we “hold his feet to the fire?” It seems that both of these candidates have the wrong idea. But then, I’m not a big fan of having (a) a public service comission, or (b) utilities. I like the water I drink to come from streams, the heat I have to come from another warm body, and I like my waste to fertilize the ground, not go to some treatment plant.
December 7th, 2006 at 6:45 am
Save the $1.2 million and the majority requirement, instead we need to go to instant runoff voting:
http://www.instantrunoff.com
December 7th, 2006 at 1:00 pm
I have to admit I had no idea there was a runoff election Tuesday. (One argument for having your blog on RSS feed, Robert, though I’ve been avoiding RSS feeds like the plague.) Had I known, I’d like to think I would have voted, my being preoccupied with a final paper due that day notwithstanding.
December 8th, 2006 at 2:56 pm
What’s sad is the system is at fault for the low turnout. Instant run-off voting for the Nov. election would have fixed this. Online voting should be here by now. Yes, this is important, but people have kids, busy schedules, etc. To take the time to vote for one race after you’ve done so in Nov. truly is a lot to ask for.
December 13th, 2006 at 10:41 pm
I share Robert’s despair.
And I have to take issue with the posters here.
The system is not at fault. We get the system we deserve.
Advance voting was available the entire week before the Tuesday runoff.
We’ve got thousands of troops serving our country in harms way right now but 95% of the eligible voters in the state can’t even be bothered to vote for 1 of 5 comissioners that makes decisions that affect the cost of almost every utility bill they get each month. Pathetic.
December 14th, 2006 at 9:20 pm
I knew there was a run-off, and decided not to cast a ballot. I did not hear a single word about either candidate that made me want to make an effort to vote for one or the other. Your own “endorsement” post was pretty sad and didn’t really “sell” one candidate or another.
This one race for one guy I didn’t like or another I didn’t like was not enough to get me into a polling booth on a rainy tuesday.