Are Voters Saying “We Vote For NONE OF THE ABOVE”?

If you had a party and over 90% of those you invited didn’t show up, would you feel rejected?

The turnout for our local General Election seems to reflect public sentiment about politics in general. With the popularity rating for our President and our Democrat controlled U.S. Congress at record lows and growing concerns about the lack of good solutions to some of the important problems our State and local governments are facing, voters seem to have just stepped back and said “no interest”.

Obviously, turnout was not that good for the Senate District #3 and House District #24 races (8.7%). The predicted winners (Dean/Kelly) won, but most voters seem to be sitting back and hoping for a more competitive slate of candidates in 2008.

A further indication of voter dissatisfaction can be gleaned from the unusually good performance of write-in candidate Nancy Stacy. Some bloggers said she would be lucky to garner 20 votes. Others said anything over 0.5% should be considered good; which is probably the most valid historic measure of any. Ms. Stacy received 8.0% and 433 votes. The write-in candidate in Senate District #3 (Kaarl Brandon) who ran an active campaign, received 0.7% and 66 votes.

Our take on the Stacy result is that it reflects a “protest” of continued voter dissatisfaction with the quality of candidates and/or the election process itself.

What do the election results tell you? Let us know.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Final Election results indicate Nancy Stacy's vote count was smaller than originally reported. Here is what the Election Office had to say: 433 (8.0%) voters chose "write-in" on their ballots, and of those 149 (2.8%) wrote in Stacy's name. Other entries included "none of the above" and "any Democrat," the elections office reported.