Now that the rain has stopped election signs have been springing up like toadstools in all neighborhood yards. Actually, some have been there since the spring thaw so if that counts for anything, there will be some changes made in local government.
Here’s the problem; actually several problems. There are really important offices at stake like the General Assembly. Given the fact that little was accomplished in the last session one can hold only slim hope that this time educational funding will be improved, gasoline and tobacco tax will be raised, VDOT funding for crumbling infrastructure will be increased, and no state official will go to jail for malfeasance or sexual adventurism with minors.
A second problem emerges for lesser local offices. There can be little doubt that the County Board of Supervisors does important work. Electing the wrong supervisor from a district can and does throw a monkey wrench into their agenda. How does one really know what kind of qualifications the candidate has? While two state senate candidates will spend over a million dollars in campaigning a third who is well qualified has virtually no funding. Those running for local office have no war chest with which to finance their bid and little public interest in the contests.
The process of nomination is not very transparent. “Firehouse Primary” gives a hint to how it might work, but there are all sorts of tricks that can be played. How about an incumbent who “decides” five days before the filing deadline not to seek reelection? There is no time for an alternative candidate to adequately prepare for the election process unless, of course, someone had inside information months before the actual announcement. Has any candidate moved a place of residence to a more favorable district for election? Two come to mind in our area.
Everyone has a general idea of what goes (or should) on at the state legislative level; what the county clerk of courts does is much less understood. An important job, no doubt, but a challenger has had signs up since spring and he may be extraordinarily qualified for a job few understand, but how is one to make that decision?
Another example is the school board. We have some idea what they should be doing and judging from the success in the county schools, they must be functioning well, but simply seeing a yard sign for a prospective candidate in the forest of other signs says nothing about their qualifications. Some jurisdictions have prospective school board members interviewed and the selections are not made by public referenda. That sounds like a good idea.
What goes around comes around. For centuries paper ballots were used but then came all sorts of electronic voting devices. One need not delve into how George W. became President because of the infamous hanging chad, a word no one had ever heard of before the 2000 presidential election in Florida. Now locally we are going back to paper ballots that will be optically scanned and produce the results. That does have the advantage of a paper trail which the touch screen ballot did not. How long do you think it will be before the scanner eats a ballot and jams the scanner?
Photo ID to stop “massive voter fraud,” for which no reliable evidence has been produced, and harkens back to discrimination in voting registration is up for discussion. The list goes on; don’t get me started on the presidential debates. The default position can easily be adopted: Don’t vote. That’s a potentially big mistake. We should not be voting for offices about which we know nothing for candidates whose qualifications are totally unknown, so we should diligently gather facts, not from campaign blurbs, but from news sources that can trusted.
Flawed though the system may be, remember the words of Winston Churchill: “Democracy is the worst possible form of government . . . except for all the rest.”
Get the information and vote!
Hayden Hollingsworth
