October 13, 2015 at 5:16 p.m.
Local voters need to be engaged
Editorial
Where were you?
And where will you be when the voting starts?
The Jay County Chamber of Commerce sponsored a pair of mayoral debates last week in Dunkirk and Portland.
In the past, the chamber has sponsored “meet the candidate” nights, but those have never been very illuminating. Candidates have stood up, identified themselves, talked a little about their civic involvement and given a brief statement about why they are running for office.
This year, the chamber took the admirable step of framing the evening much more like a debate. While things were much the same for city council candidates, things were different for those running for mayor. A handful of questions had been put together by a committee and were posed to the office-seekers.
A perfect system? Of course not.
But it went a long way toward informing voters about the candidates’ positions.
Trouble is, most of the voters stayed home.
Dunkirk’s session was attended by about 30, but when you subtracted those who don’t live in Dunkirk, the total of actual voters was something like 20, at most.
Portland’s session drew a better crowd of maybe 50, but about half of the crowd was made up of candidates, their families and other local officials.
Representative democracy is a great system, the best ever invented; but if voters don’t care to become informed and don’t even bother to go to the polls, that marvelous system gets shortchanged.
Sure, there may be better things to do on an October night. The Portland debate ran headlong into an Indianapolis Colts game, for instance.
But with great freedom comes great responsibility.
And far too many local voters failed to live up to that responsibility last week.
They will vote — some of them — but when handed an opportunity to make that vote an informed one, they passed.
Citizens of dozens of countries unable to cast a meaningful ballot would be appalled. And they would be right in their judgment that those blessed with the greatest democratic freedom all too often prove themselves unworthy. — J.R.
And where will you be when the voting starts?
The Jay County Chamber of Commerce sponsored a pair of mayoral debates last week in Dunkirk and Portland.
In the past, the chamber has sponsored “meet the candidate” nights, but those have never been very illuminating. Candidates have stood up, identified themselves, talked a little about their civic involvement and given a brief statement about why they are running for office.
This year, the chamber took the admirable step of framing the evening much more like a debate. While things were much the same for city council candidates, things were different for those running for mayor. A handful of questions had been put together by a committee and were posed to the office-seekers.
A perfect system? Of course not.
But it went a long way toward informing voters about the candidates’ positions.
Trouble is, most of the voters stayed home.
Dunkirk’s session was attended by about 30, but when you subtracted those who don’t live in Dunkirk, the total of actual voters was something like 20, at most.
Portland’s session drew a better crowd of maybe 50, but about half of the crowd was made up of candidates, their families and other local officials.
Representative democracy is a great system, the best ever invented; but if voters don’t care to become informed and don’t even bother to go to the polls, that marvelous system gets shortchanged.
Sure, there may be better things to do on an October night. The Portland debate ran headlong into an Indianapolis Colts game, for instance.
But with great freedom comes great responsibility.
And far too many local voters failed to live up to that responsibility last week.
They will vote — some of them — but when handed an opportunity to make that vote an informed one, they passed.
Citizens of dozens of countries unable to cast a meaningful ballot would be appalled. And they would be right in their judgment that those blessed with the greatest democratic freedom all too often prove themselves unworthy. — J.R.
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