The SJR editorializes in favor of voting today, upholding the noble journalistic tradition of hectoring citizens to not be so lazy. I'm a structures kind of guy, so I'm always more curious about how people's choices--such as whether to vote or not to vote--are shaped by their circumstances. For example, the State gives the day off for the statewide election--does it for Springfield's election? Are other employers in the city willing to let employees duck out for a little bit of time to go vote? Do employers promote voting?
A couple of years ago, Louis Menand wrote a great article for the New Yorker about all of the things, other than an interest in politics, that drive voter behavior. Button color and weather, for instance. Obviously, there is a lot that political candidates and parties do to promote or depress voter turnout. Maybe, though, there are more things that we can do as a community to promote it as well. What if the SJR told us about that? What if the city clerk started a community campaign for voting? Those, I think, would be more valuable than another hectoring screed about how if you don't vote, you don't get to complain.
ALSO: This is actually my main reason for posting: Missouri City ward election draws ZERO votes. Not even the guy running (unopposed) went out and voted for himself. FRANK EDWARDS: THIS COULD BE YOU: REMEMBER TO VOTE!
Comments (2)
Despite how hectic things have been, I had saved this web page shortcut (for this blog entry) on my laptop Desktop, because I wanted to post a comment here... I wanted to say that, when creating the website of a candidate recently, I was looking for weblogs and sites that were about these Springfield elections, or at least had some commentary about them. It was hard to find blogs that dealt specifically with this topic, so I am glad to see entries like the one; and thanks for the link to the SJ-R piece as well.
Even aside from how we feel about the issues, I'm glad to see some interest, in the Blogosphere, about these important elections. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done, from now through Tuesday. Thank you for posting your thoughts about this topic.
Posted by Aakash | April 15, 2007 4:30 PM
Posted on April 15, 2007 16:30
Aakash,
And thank you for reading. One thing that I think would be useful for future elections is to try to pull all of the different people doing election coverage of any sort--candidate surveys, for instance--together, and get one place for linking to all of their materials. I know the Sierra Club ran a survey, but I don't know who else, and I'd like to.
There's a panel on the future of renewable energy at Brookens Auditorium on Thursday at 7. We'll have a table there. If you're there, feel free to drop by.
Posted by Greg C | April 15, 2007 6:04 PM
Posted on April 15, 2007 18:04