I have a rather shameful confession to make. Yesterday was Election Day, and I did not vote. I could tell you a number of potentially good reasons why, but in the end they all amount to nothing more than plain old garden variety excuses. The bottom line is I shirked my civic duty. The fact that there was nothing of earth-shattering significance on the ballot in my neck of the woods and that everyone I would have voted for in local contests won is immaterial. I have come down hard on people in the past for not casting ballots, and by not doing so yesterday I failed to hold myself to that same standard. Looking at some of the results from yesterday makes me feel even worse, even though there was nothing I could have done to change anything. Shame on me for not doing my part!
I was particularly distressed by the results of the gubernatorial contest in Kentucky. Jack Conway, the Democratic nominee, was defeated by Republican Matt Bevin, who is reportedly a TeaParty stalwart. Among other things, it’s my understanding that Bevin has pledged to essentially dismantle Kentucky’s very successful state insurance exchange and opt out of the expanded Medicaid program, which would terminate medical coverage for 400,000 residents of the state. I was all set to rant and rave about how this was an example of people voting against their best interests, didn’t they know better, and all the rest, but there’s a bigger issue here; voter turnout. The figures I’ve seen indicate there was a 25% voter turnout in Tuesday’s election in the Bluegrass. Put another way, three out of four people eligible to vote didn’t even bother to show up. 25% is an extremely small—one might even argue miniscule—sampling of the electorate. Shrinking the numbers for the case of example, let’s say you belong to a constituency of exactly 100 people. 25% voter turnout means only 25 people would vote. Candidate A gets 13 of those votes, and Candidate B gets 12. The end result is Candidate A wins, even though he ultimately only got 13% of the entire potential vote. To me, that’s not real majority vote; that’s the vote of the few.
I have an idea that I know will never fly for many reasons, but maybe it should. Most professional and advocacy organizations I’ve belonged to have a quorum rule. In essence, if participation in a vote does not meet a certain percentage, there is no quorum and the results don’t count. Perhaps we as a nation should at least consider adopting a quorum rule, where if a turnout rate falls below a certain percentage (30%, for example), the results are thrown out and a revote is done. This would have the benefit of bolstering voter turnout, and maybe it would get more people interested and involved in the process. As I said, it’s a radical idea, and it won’t ever happen, but suppose it did? It’s not bad to dream, anyway.
Another confession: The results from Kentucky and elsewhere make it sorely tempting for me to just throw in the towel, fold up the tent, and find somewhere else to call home. But in the grand scheme of things that is really not a viable option. As hard as it is, and as depressing as it gets, the fight must continue. And that fight will begin in the action that I failed to complete yesterday: Showing up!
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I would add that not voting feeds into what the Republicans want in the first place. The whole idea of these voter turnout rules that occur in red states is to keep people from voting. There was a time around when we were born, and before where there were poll taxes. Those were since ruled illegal but they were imposed to keep the not ruling party from having a vote.
The most important thing that can be done to improve the voting constituencies is to provide a good education. I really believe that part of the reason we have low voter turnout is a desire not to fund public schools, and that much of education reform is actually designed to make schools look bad for that purpose. It feeds into the desire of the ruling class, the Republican Party, particularly in red states, and of religious and anti-tax voters who see nothing but evil in support for public services.
I really believe that these are also the forces behind Kentucky’s choice and Texas is at other states not to support Medicaid and Medicare. The same people that will tell those in need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps are the ones that will accept a government hand out as quickly as they can as long as it benefits them. But when you have power to change things you do whatever you can to change the narrative, and what the public sees is the narrative.