The Village had an election last week. Frankly, by all estimations, the race was pretty hotly contested. There were two fairly clearly identifiable factions, and each faction considered the other threatening and destructive.
I sent out daily e-mails for almost a week before the election, urging people to vote. And urging recipients to urge their contacts to vote. Steve Bernard personally provided signs posted in various easy-to-see places also urging people to vote.
Voter turnout was meager. It was less than it had been two years ago. Less than 600 people voted, and there are about 1900 registered voters in the Park. I'm saying turnout was meager, but it wouldn't be wrong to say it was a disgrace. And frankly embarrassing.
We live in a small neighborhood, and many people know each other on a personal level. There was every reason to take an interest. Few people did. Voting is easy. There's a central and easily accessible place where we all vote, and it's open all day, from 7 AM to 7 PM. Anyone who couldn't be available to come out, or couldn't be bothered, could have sent in an absentee ballot. About 50 people did. That's part of the less that 600 total voters.
There are things that can be done. The obvious one is to move our Village voting, which occurs in December of odd numbered years, to the general election, which occurs in November of even numbered years. Because there are more issues on the ballot, people are more interested, or motivated, and we would get more voters. There is a small movement against this, but it doesn't make any democratic sense. And by the way, it costs us several thousand dollars to run our little non-productive elections. Considering the turnout, it's a waste of good money. We would save a lot of money if we hooked on to the general elections, as most municipalities do.
Another thing we could do is reward people for voting, or find a way to punish them if they don't. This is a little tricky, and since the most attention-grabbing reward is money, we would disadvantage ourselves fiscally if we paid people to vote. But we could do it.
The real problem, though, is that we as a Village have failed to inspire people to vote. It's not clear to me how we do that, and we seem to do it repeatedly. Do we offer uninspiring candidates, so no one has passion for any of them? Maybe. The high vote-getter this year got about 320 of the under 600 votes, and those less-than-600 represent less than 1/3 of registered voters. So at best, there's very little energy, even for the biggest of the winners. Interestingly, the big winner this time doesn't yet appear to be complaining about the lack of respect. Neither did the big winner two years ago. Neither did the big winner two years before that. Perhaps winning relatively big creates a kind of conflict of interest. Like it's hard to get Congress to make rules against PACs and lobbyists. Do we expect them to bite the hand that fed them? When you're winning, it's hard to get distracted by things like democracy and caring about the unknown will of the sizable majority.
(As a follow-up to the paragraph immediately above, the Miami Herald Neighbors section today had an article about last week's election and results. The high vote-getter said she was "gratified that many people" voted for her. So unfortunately, my apprehension was confirmed. She was so happy about her big victory that she missed the community failure and the insult to her. Expectations even among candidates are pretty unambitious. All very pitiful and pathetic.)
There are some in our neighborhood who have portrayed that there are momentous issues to consider, that it's vitally important who is elected, and that the balance of the life of the neighborhood depends on voter turnout. Even if the crises and crusades are invented, it certainly sounds like something that would move people to vote. Apparently not.
The other side, in contrast to the crusaders, says things are going fine, and there isn't much really to complain about or stress over. So under the threat of a possible new majority that talks as if it wanted to undo the good that has been done, and threaten our positive adjustment, that side should have been motivated to come out, to preserve their happy home from anarchists and saboteurs. Nope. They weren't there either.
So the bottom line is that hardly anyone votes. Does hardly anyone give a damn what happens to Biscayne Park? They're registered here. This is their home. Really? Couldn't care less? It's a damn shame.
And to add true insult to injury, even the few people who vote don't come to Commission meetings. So the electors of the winners don't know what they wrought, and those who failed to get their candidates elected don't know what they overlooked and missed out on.
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