Huckleberries Online

DOTC: Another Poor Trustee Turnout

Posted by DFO

May 20, 2009 6 a.m. • 8 comments

Dan Of The County: If those numbers are right (639 in Zone 1 and 422 in Zone 3) the astounding number would be the turn out. I believe the number of registered voters for the whole district is about 37,000. With five trustee zones the average (if they are relatively equal) number of registered voters per trustee zone would be about 7,400. If so, that would mean the turn out for this particular trustee election would be less than 6%! I hope my math is wrong. The Governor signed the election consolidation bill yesterday. It will be interesting to see if one the main arguments for it comes to pass, that with more combined elections you will hopefully see turnouts go up.

Question: Do you believe election consolidation will improve voter turnout for trustee elections?

Eight comments on this post so far. Add yours!

Dennis on May 20 at 6:25 a.m.
The dismal turnout was a shame. And even with the poor turnout,,,the incumbents still won. The naysayers will look at the spread and claim some type of victory stating that a “Mandate” has been set. I have some bad news for them though. Just because they were able to organize their “Coffee Clutch” to get out to vote, their numbers are so low they are irrelevant.

Now most “Adults” would admit defeat and move on. THIS group of Howler Monkeys have no such intention. Stand by for a couple more years of grandiose predictions, bitter defeats and conspiracy theories.
danofthecommunity on May 20 at 7:26 a.m.
My 6% estimate was based on the final numbers in zone 3. Zone 1 had a few hundred more voters so the turnout rate there was up “dramatically” to about 8.5%. Not in the double digits mind you, but at least up the in high single digits. Whoo-whoo!

I remember my first school board race back in the 80’s where I won (against Gil Yates) by a nice healthy margin of 17 votes. The funny thing is I don’t think the number of people voting were too many less than yesterday—but about 5 years earlier.
danofthecommunity on May 20 at 7:27 a.m.
about 5 years earlier=25 years earlier
MamaJD on May 20 at 9:39 a.m.
Dan - how were the absentee numbers vs. the polling site numbers? I’m curious if there was a substantial increase in absentee ballots.
danofthecommunity on May 20 at 11:11 a.m.
We didn’t conduct any of these school elections so I’m not sure of any of those kind of numbers. They would have to come from the school districts.
MamaJD on May 20 at 11:26 a.m.
Thanks, Dan!
nic on May 20 at 1:51 p.m.
Dan - are the polling places required to have voters point out the residence on a map to prove they are voting at the correct location?
florined on May 20 at 2:18 p.m.
Nic, I went to vote at Fernan and they didn’t ask me to point at a map.

However, they also couldn’t find my name on their lists. Monday last week I called the school district to verify my district. Since I live on the west side of the boundary street, I wanted to be sure. The person at the district office assured me that I did indeed live in District 1. The folks at the polls disagreed. Had I been allowed to vote, the spread would have been a tiny bit wider.

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.