What’s up with nonvoters?

It was a gray November day, and I was driving back to Spokane from Coeur d’Alene. I began working as a reporter in Spokane covering elections and initiatives – local, state and otherwise – when initiative king Tim Eyman was at the height of his productivity.

The year I’m thinking of is probably 2000. It was Election Day and somehow I was covering races in both states. I was getting ready to pull off the freeway, listening to the early results on the radio, when I had one of my immigrant moments:

“How did this happen? What on earth am I doing here,” I thought, “covering an election in the United States? I wasn’t born here and I can’t even vote.”

It made me laugh out loud.

Not because I don’t take my job seriously – I do – but it was the unlikelihood of the whole thing that made me giggle.

Why am I thinking of this in the middle of summer, you ask?

Candidate filing week begins on Monday, so consider yourself warned in case you are thinking of running for office and haven’t gotten ahold of the paperwork yet.

And for you potential voters out there: Your primary ballot will be arriving in the mail at the end of July – long before your swim trunks dry and your sunburn heals.

There are plenty of races to get excited about as the mayor and pretty much half the Spokane City Council are up for election.

A state of excitement assumes, of course, that you are interested in politics and that you are registered to vote. If not, you have until July 23 to get that taken care of.

I’ve always found politics fascinating – apparently that’s not something I share with most Americans, because I’ve discovered that many Americans don’t vote.

When I first moved over here I couldn’t believe my ears: As many as half of those who can, don’t vote in a presidential election. I beg your pardon? People just can’t be bothered to cast a ballot, even when it’s for the so-called leader of the free world?

Now give me a chance to explain before you start yelling at me to go home where I came from.

The voter turnout in this country is lower than in most other Western democracies. During the 2000 presidential election I just mentioned, about 100 million voters didn’t bother.

That’s not impressive. That’s abysmal.

Consider the United States’ unofficial nickname: The greatest democracy in the world.

That conjures up images of Americans lining up before the sun rises, pushing and shoving, waiting in the burning sun or the freezing snow, to cast that ballot.

Images of young red-cheeked Americans smiling proudly, only days past their 18th birthday, as they hand over that very first ballot.

Images of Americans running toward the last open polling site, tears streaming down their faces screaming, “Wait, don’t close the ballot box, I must vote …”

And images of those who don’t vote facing ridicule, as a warning to young Americans should they get the idea that abstaining from voting is somehow all right.

Yes, I understand, living in a democracy gives you the right not to vote if you so choose – otherwise you’d be living in a dictatorship – but quite seriously people, what’s the hang-up?

The reason I hear most often is that people can’t find time to get informed on issues and candidates. So they choose to stay oblivious and unengaged until the next “Dancing with the Stars” comes on TV. Somehow, they can easily find evening after evening to watch a boxer in a mini-dress and country star in an ill-fitting tuxedo trying to do the cha-cha.

There’s no way reading the voter pamphlet takes even half that long.