Thirty Percent Voter Turnout? Not a Good Sign

So the numbers are in from the July 31 election.  Not the number of people who voted for TSPLOST or school board candidates or cell towers.  It's the voter turnout number that's really frightening.

31 percent.  That's the percentage of eligible voters who exercised their sacred right last week.  The state offered absentee voting, a voting day on a Saturday and a week of early voting, but still ... 31 percent.

Folks, we can do better.  A lot better.   Around the world we see countries where people are voting for the first time in decades.  We see people dying for the right to run their own countries free from dictators and tyrants.  

So why don't we seem to care?   Do we think our vote won't make a difference?  Do we think there's no good candidate worth voting for?

We've got several more elections coming up:

• Aug 21 - A General Primary Runoff
• Sept 18 - A Special Election to fill vacancies
• Oct. 17 - Special Election Runoff
• Nov. 6 - The Big General Election

Sometimes it's confusing.  Can I vote in this runoff if I'm not registered with a certain party?  Do these candidates really matter to me?

It takes some time sometimes to do the research and the legwork to be an educated voter.  Sometimes it's hard to find the time to do that, but it's vital to the functioning of our country to make the effort.  

They say we get the leaders we deserve, but if we don't even take the time to go to the polls then whose fault is it really?

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