Sunday, October 25, 2015

Election Returns

A screen shot, taken from  of the Book of Face,   Interesting statistics there, if you look beyond the totals.  There are a lot of folks who choose not to vote, after having registered to do so.

Three races highlighted there.  A state representative race where 33.7% of those eligible pulled a lever, a parishwide sheriff's race, where 33.4% of the folks decided the race, and a smaller, police jury race where 25.8% of the eligible voters decided the race.

Simple match tells the tale.  Rapides Parish has roughly 92,500 registered voters and only 27,712 managed to make it to the polls, either through absentee voting, early voting, or pulling the lever at  the polls on voting day.

Representative democracy isa messy business, and while I applaud the results of these particular races (I work for Sheriff Hilton, support him, and personally like him) the sad simple truth is that there are a lot of folks who just don't give a damn who represents them, as evidenced by the fact that they simply don't show up to be counted.  There may be good reasons for someone not to vote, individual reasons that are totally beyond their control, but the vast majority of the folks who are uncounted are simply apathetic when it comes to government, local, statewide, or national.

For those who voted, thank you.  For those who didn't, shame on you.

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