Official Election Results and an Important Date

I should get a frame for it.

As a brief follow up on my previous post about elections and voting, I thought I would share the results from the March 15th General Primary Election. Now that the final results are in and the election has been certified, we can take a closer look at the numbers and see what they tell us.  Not in a big picture analysis, but just the little microcosm of Zion Precinct 411.

As you can see from the picture of my election certificate above, there were 194 ballots cast in the Democratic primary in Precinct 411, but that doesn't give us the whole picture. If we look at the official results, we see that there were 55 under votes, people who declined to vote on my unopposed race. 

PRECINCT COMMITTEEMAN Zion 411

Zion 411 (Prec-0411)

(VOTE FOR) 1

Christopher J. Fischer . . . . . . 137 100.00

Over Votes . . . . . . . . . 0

Under Votes . . . . . . . . . 55

That is about 28% of the voters who pulled a Democratic Primary Ballot in Precinct 411. Now some of that under vote might be due to my position on the ballot which was on the back, with only the County Board District 4 race above it. Some folks may not have even turned the ballot over, or they don't like only having one choice.  If we look at the other four precincts in Zion where a Committeeman was on the ballot, and unopposed, the percentage of under votes range as follows by precinct: 403 18%, 409 24%, 410 44%, 413 21%. So, 28% is about the average, and don't get me wrong getting 72% of the ballots is great. If I had gotten that percentage in my last race for Commissioner I would be celebrating my first year in office today.

Turnout Percentages for Zion on March 15, 2016

However, there is cause for concern, because Zion has a history of voter apathy. Looking at the percentages shown in the table above compared to the official turnout for Lake County of 44.20%  I think that concern is justified.  My hope, as the election season shifts from the primaries and conventions to the finish in November is that people will shake off their apathy and become engaged in the process. Because the fall election isn't just about the Presidency, it's about all the down ballot races for Senate, Congress, State Senate, State Representative, States Attorney, and several County wide offices, all of which are very important, no doubt.

The challenge for everyone like myself who believe in the importance of participating in our system of self-governance, is getting people who come out of hibernation every four years for the Presidential election to come out again to vote in the April election that follows.  As I have been saying for the past four years; local, municipal, and school board elections, the ones that get almost no attention at all, are the elections that have the biggest impact on our daily lives.  

The truth is that most of the taxes you actually pay will go to the governing bodies controlled by the people who will be elected in the Consolidated General Election in April 2017.

If you are upset that your property taxes keep going up while the value of your home drops, or that your street is turning into a field of potholes, or the schools are taking more money and the results aren't getting better, then you have to do more than vote on November 8th, you must mark your calendar for April 4, 2017 and get out the door to the polls!

I hope that you will join me.