Low voter turnout

This evening I was selecting everything to vote for and realized that I lacked a copy of the city voter information guide. I had the state ones, but needed the city one to read candidate statements for some key races. I did consult my usual reference for voting – the election guide that is always published by one of the local weekly publications. But for some of the local races they only mentioned who they endorsed and I really wanted to read the other candidates’ statements.

I went and knocked on multiple doors in my apartment building to ask some people if they had the city voter information guide and, not surprisingly, not one did. My guess is that the vast majority of people who live in my apartment building do not vote.

When I went to the polling place to vote luckily they had a copy of the guide. Reading through the statements from candidates for various offices, and also pro and con statements for various issues, it became clear to me that this election was a very important one for my city and my state. A lot of offices for people who at the front lines are at stake. Voting for things like state assessor, controller, or community college board members may not seem important, but of course it is very important.

Of all the statements I read one from a candidate for the Superintendent of Public Instruction moved me the most: the candidate wrote something to the effect that the arts are important for education. During times of financial pressure there is always a tendency to want to cut “non essential” courses such as those in the arts and it was immediately clear to me from this candidates statement that that is not acceptable to him.

I think that in some ways these races are more important because these things make a big difference in the long term even though their results may not be so immediate.

Another thing I noted with this election was that a good number of races went unchallenged. In some cases the incumbents seeking re-election are hard-working, good people and its nice to be able to still select them on the ballot just as a way of endorsing and thanking them.

But for other races – such as governor and several other key ones – there is no question that this entire election process – I don’t mean voting but the entire democratic process of selecting candidates, having candidates to select from, discussion of issues and positions, etc. – is totally broken.

There is no meaningful democratic process in too many races and, in a society which seems to have no shortage of vast resources when it comes to many other things, this is nothing short of a travesty.

Money in politics is a terrible evil that is destroying America. In every other sane democratic society the influence of money on politicians and on electoral processes is severely restricted.

I read today that one local candidate for a state office received around $750,000 from some companies in this election. That is completely outrageous. There is simply no excuse for this.

While its not as simple as just blaming such candidates – for they are doing what they have to to run for these offices – it is an outrage that no one is really standing up and trying to put an end to this.

Actually the http://mayday.us campaign is working to put an end to this and is actively funneling money to reform candidates across the country who are committed to getting money out of politics. I highly encourage supporting them.