Cabarrus Cheap Seats

A Brief Programming Note

Because of some commitments between tonight and Sunday night, I will not be able to update this blog or get to approving any comments until the end of the weekend.

It’s part of a post-election deal I made with my wife.

Diminishing Returns

About 8% of the County bothered to show up for the Primary Election. If history is any guide, the folks who won the Republican Primary for DA, County Commissioner, and Clerk of Court will proceed with little impediment through the General Elections. The growth in the Cabarrus County Republican Party makes this more likely.

Also, while the number of Registered Voters has grown - the turnout at Primary Elections has steadily decreased.

2002 Primary - Total Ballots Cast - 10,930
2004 Primary - Total Ballots Cast - 9,856
2006 Primary - Total Ballots Cast - 8,800 (approx)

Recently - I received an e-mail that describes a certain “core” voter that could explain the source of the folks who won the second, fourth, sixth, and eighth places in the recent County Commissioners race:

Subject: They breed, they vote, they’re alive! I hope they’re voting on the other ticket! 

Some guy bought a new fridge for his house. To get rid of his old fridge, he put it in his front yard and hung a sign on it reading: “Free to good home. You want it, you take it”. For three days the fridge sat there without even one person looking twice at it. He eventually decided that people were too un-trusting of this deal. It looked too good to be true, so he changed the sign to read: “Fridge for sale $50″. The next day someone stole it.

Caution! These people Vote!

While looking at a house, my brother asked the real estate agent which direction was North because, he explained, he didn’t want the sun waking him up every morning. She asked, “Does the sun rise in the North?” When my brother explained that the sun rises in the East, (and has for some time), she shook her head and said, “Oh, I don’t keep up with that stuff”

She ALSO votes!

I used to work in technical support for a 24/7 call center. One day I got a call from an individual who asked what hours the call center was open. I told him, “The number you dialed is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.” He responded, “Is that Eastern or Pacific time?” Wanting to end the call quickly, I said, “Uh, Pacific”

He ALSO votes!

My colleague and I were eating our lunch in our cafeteria, when we overheard one of the administrative assistants talking about the sunburn she got on her weekend drive to the shore. She drove down in a convertible, but “didn’t think she’d get sunburned because the car was moving”

She ALSO votes!

My sister has a lifesaving tool in her car. It’s designed to cut through a seat belt if she gets trapped. She keeps it in the trunk.

My sister ALSO votes!

My friends and I were on a beer run and noticed that the cases were discounted 10%. Since it was a big party, we bought 2 cases. The cashier multiplied 2 times 10% and gave us a 20% discount.

He ALSO votes!

I was hanging out with a friend when we saw a woman with a nose ring attached to an earring by a chain. My friend said, “Wouldn’t the chain rip out every time she turned her head?” I explained that a person’s nose and ear remain the same distance apart no matter which way the head is turned.

My friend ALSO votes!

I couldn’t find my luggage at the airport baggage area. So I went to the lost luggage office and told the woman there that my bags never showed up. She smiled and told me not to worry because she was a trained professional and I was in good hands. “Now,” she asked me, “has your plane arrived yet? “

SHE ALSO votes!

While working at a Pizza Parlor I observed a man ordering a small pizza to go. He appeared to be alone and the cook asked him if he would like it cut into 4 pieces or 6. He thought about it for some time before responding. “Just cut it into 4 pieces; I don’t think I’m hungry enough to eat 6.

Yep, he votes too!!!

The Government We Deserve

I read a recent article by Melissa Mitchell of the John Locke Foundation which covered the affects of apathy in local elections. I strongly suggest reading the entire article, but I thought I’d offer this snippet here:

The sidewalk project and the low voter turnout numbers bothered me for the past year. Then the issue of voter disinterest came to a head when a recent Civitas Institute survey revealed that 64 percent of voters did not know that Democrats controlled both houses of the North Carolina General Assembly. 

That survey number caused me to question a few people about voting in national, state, and local elections. Although this was by no means a scientific survey, the answers were honest and interesting. Many of those questioned were grassroots activists who worked to elect national officials. They knew national issues and candidates. But when it came to local and state elections, their answers surprised me.

Many said they never voted in local elections. One voter called those elections a waste of time because local officials just did what they wanted to do. That voter cited the example of the Raleigh Convention Center. Voters rejected the project, but it’s moving forward.

Another person told me she always voted for a particular state representative, even though he did not vote conservatively. The voter said she liked the legislatorÂ?s wife. While others said they always voted a straight-party ticket, they didn’t seem to care about nonpartisan judicial races. One person said she voted for all the women on the ballot. This same lack of interest extended to county officials. I’ll bet homeowners involved in the Kelo v. New London eminent domain case care about their local and judicial races.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF “Sidewalks To Nowhere”

However, you gotta wonder that if so much is at stake - what’s the motivation to avoid the polls?

The Chicken and the Egg

Well, the answer to the low voter turnout question depends on who you ask. If you ask voters - they’ll tell you that they can’t find a candidate they can get behind, they don’t like all of the negativity in the process, “they’re all the same”, there’s nowhere to find out about the candidates, they don’t understand what all of the people do, etc.

Talk to the candidates, they’ll tell you that voters just don’t understand the issues, they don’t take their responsibility seriously, people are “too busy”, etc.

My opinion - the problem is not the voters. The problem is the candidates and the process that they’ve created. Candidates from both parties have been working to create more and more secure districts on all levels from US House to State House to even the local districts in Concord (Click Here To See Map) - incumbency is valued more than a spirited race. The only two competitive US House races in North Carolina will be the 8th and the 11th.

Obviously, the voters have reason to expect more of the same. The problem is that the candidates do too. At my house, we received plenty of mailings; but they were all addressed to my wife; because by the standard calculation - my wife was a likely voter in a Republican Primary and I am not (it had to do with my brief stint in Mecklenburg County and re-registering in Cabarrus County). That’s who the candidates target, and nobody else.

What we wind up with is less than 10% of the voters showing up because they are settling this score with that person, or the belong to this faction, or their church gave them a marked-up sample ballot (in violation of tax law, by the way). By design, we get more of the same.

If you haven’t noticed - there’s a spiral here. I’m sure that our Founding Fathers didn’t really expect everyone to get involved; but I think they would have hope for at least 1 in 10.