Happy! Marty Martinez won in Leesburg. All the incumbents were reelected. Congratulations, Marty! I had a great time at the Brandon Park polling place!
Sad. Cesar Del Aguila didn't win in Herndon. I am very disappointed about that, but it looks like some good people won and that there is no longer a majority of teabaggers on that council.
Sad that turnout was low everywhere. Sad that Middleburg had 2 candidates on the ballot for 4 seats (two people got substantial write-in support) and an uncontested mayoral race. Sad that the mayoral race in Purcellville was uncontested (though there were 201 write-in votes and 155 undervotes - which could be write-ins without the "write-in" checkbox checked.)
Democracy takes work. It takes candidates contesting every seat. It takes a free press and it takes shoe leather. And it especially takes voters going out to the polls.
In Leesburg, 13% of voters turned out. A bit over 3,000 people decided how a town with over 24,000 registered voters will be run.
I just can't understand people not voting. I don't get it. The right to vote is something that women were chaining themselves to fences and starving themselves to death in prisons for less than 100 years ago. And people just throw it away. Just let others decide for them.
It makes me furious.
Someone told me years ago (when I didn't vote), "Ignorance is acceptance", meaning, you don't vote, you accept who's elected, and you don't complain about them. I always remember that, and I've only missed one election in the past 22 years.
ReplyDeleteCongrats, Marty!
Voter turn-out is often distressing, but I wonder if those stalwart women who fought for suffrage were not as motivated by the desire to vote as they were by the desire to have equal rights.
ReplyDelete