The Amazing Fifteen Percenters

Tuesday morning at 5:15 a.m. my alarm went off, and I got up to go to the South Weber Family Activity Center for the municipal elections. My job in this election, as last, was to set up the touch-screen voting machines, help voters vote with them, and secure the almighty voting memory cards at the end of the night for county election officials to tabulate and use to declare and install our municipal leaders.

This year's ballot was short: an uncontested mayoral election, two candidates running for two city council spots, and a referendum on whether the school district should issue a bond that would raise average property tax rates by $135/year.

So, naturally, we expected a lower than average voter turnout.

What did we get? 473 people showed up and cast ballots. In a city that boasts over 3,000 registered voters.

437 voted for the man (Jeff Monroe) who will be their mayor.

399 and 414, respectively, voted for two city councilors who will govern them for the next four years.

Just over 15% of the registered voters in this city cared to cast a vote for whether their property taxes would increase as a result of a new school bond that would pay for additional elementary school facilities for their own children here in South Weber.

Those numbers put South Weber squarely in last place in Davis County for voter turnout. Of course, no municipality in the county had more than 35% voter turnout.


I just can't help but feel terribly troubled by it all. Just three months ago, easily a thousand people came out for the annual "South Weber Country Fair Days"--a social gathering characterized by greasy food, giant inflated play-toys for children to bounce around on, and, lest we forget! the highlight of the festivities, a rather mediocre fireworks display.

Is this really the society I live in? Surrounded by people who care more to watch a ten minute display of small explosions than to show up for five minutes to participate in their established democratic electoral process? Do my neighbors really care more about eating a damn two dollar hot dog than about voting for their mayor and deciding on a $135 tax increase?

Apparently.

And, frankly, that's why I generally carry with me a very thinly veiled disgust and disdain for 85% of the people I typically encounter.

Sure, I hold out hope for them. I worked a fifteen hour shift at the polls in the hopes of helping them to govern themselves. I've taken an oath to protect and defend their Constitution and very willingly obligated myself to donate a significant portion of my skills as a member of the bar to pro bono service on their behalf. In my disgust with their apathy and ignorance, I still care.

I just wonder sometimes why.