Reasons Not to Move the Election

#1: Cold, Not Neighborly, No Charm!
The argument presumably is that having our BP election as part of the general election is uninspiring.  It doesn't spark that neighborhood feeling, when we BP neighbors are interested in our own issues, and our own election.  Well, if that's what we want, it's apparently not working.  The plain fact of the matter is that only about half of demonstrated BP voters will vote in the BP-only, "stand alone" election.  So somebody is not very charmed by our doing it the way we do it.

#2: Too Much Confusion!
I don't know how you manage the task of choosing positions and candidates and voting for them, but I'll tell you how I do it.  I listen, read, research (to the extent that I care to), and consider in advance for whom and for what I want to vote.  When I get to the voting booth, I already know everything I want to do.  I'm just looking down the list to find the contests on which I'm going to vote.  To be perfectly honest, it's pretty easy.  I hope I'm not insulting anyone.  It's just not confusing at all.

#3:  Too Many Signs!
BP candidates who order a lot of signs usually order and place about 100.  Some candidates only order about 50.  But let's say, for purpose of discussion, that every candidate orders and places 100 signs.  And let's say there are five candidates running, as there were in the last BP election.  That's 500 signs.  That averages one sign in front of less than half the houses in BP.  And since most people who post signs post more than one, it's even fewer houses.  Not exactly an overwhelming eyesore, and it's for about one month.  Now add in the non-BP signs.  This year, and this month, are The Big One!!  It's the election of the President of the United States.  And a US Senator.  Go look around.  Let me know how many signs you see.  I'm estimating maybe 10-12, for the whole Village.  And the argument was what?

#4: BP Candidates Can't Get Your Attention, When You're Frying Bigger Fish!
How many people knocked on your door so far this month, asking you to vote for Romney, or Obama?  No?  None for me, either.  What about last October-November?  How many BP candidates knocked on your door, asking you to vote for them?  No?  Me, neither.

#5 Look, let's call it what it is.  When we draw the small crowd of voters, we deal with the cognoscenti, the truly informed voter, the one with his/her finger on the pulse of this community. "Y' folla'?"*
So let's think back.  Have we few, with our ultra careful and wise system, managed to elect any real losers as Commissioners?  Have we ever elected someone, then, by the next election, decided we got it wrong?  How much better are we few doing, how much more wise and discerning are we, than if everyone in the Village came out to vote?


Vote Yes on #258.  Let's move the election.  Let's save our Village money, and get ourselves a much bigger turnout.  And let's make life easier for ourselves.  Why come to the polls twice, when you can more easily accomplish the same goals by coming to the polls once?

*This means, You Follow?  It's like Get It?, You Catch My Drift?  It's what Doyle Lonegan kept saying in The Sting.

PS: I'm really looking for a good argument, any argument, anything from anybody, as to why we should keep doing what we're doing.  I'm getting nothing at all.  Not one person steps forward to explain why what we're going is a good idea.  Not one.  And believe me, I've asked.  A lot.