What If You Held an Election and No One Showed Up? - Granite Grok

What If You Held an Election and No One Showed Up?

Merrimack held it’s local town elections yesterday.  A town of roughly 25,000, with (I’m guessing) close to 18,000 people of voting age, that Very low voter turnout at Merrimack NH April 10th electiontypically sees 4000-6000 ballots in the average Town election, produced only 2500 ballots yesterday.

A bit of advice?

When you let one third of the voters decide tax and spending policy for your town, that’s bad enough, but when only 10% of the entire population is doing it, you will find yourself saddled with the kind of candidates and policies that make your taxes go up.   Why?  The public employees and the bureaucrats always vote.  They-always-vote.   And they rely on voter apathy to retain control and ensure that contracts, raises, projects, and spending happen.  They will always validate more government to validate their own existence, independent of any other factor.

And not voting becomes a habit.   While this years ballot was not as dangerous as some,  there was an effort to disband the School Budget committee.  It was barely saved.  And these things do matter.  But if we continue to let 10% of the people decide 100% of policy, it will not be long before the people running the town use that to their advantage.  And they will.

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