In the special election to replace Senator Byrd, approximately 12% of West Virginia‘s registered voters filled out a ballot. In yesterday’s Charleston city elections primary only 7.9% of register voters participated. Some observations on this.
1. The people have spoken and what they say more often than not is “We don’t care.”
2. In America no one has to vote. People who bemoan low voter turnout as a “bad thing” need to understand every American has the absolute right not to vote if he or she doesn’t want to.
3. I am not sure that 35,000 people voting one way or another necessarily produces a better result than 3,000 people voting on the same issues. Why should it?
4. If people want to vote and are somehow prevented from doing so then, yes, we should all fight against that. If people can vote but choose not to, well quite frankly that’s up to each person individually.
