Warning: I’m on another soap box today.
By the time you read this, there will be less than a week left for early voting in the city’s general election.
This is our chance that only comes once a year, to decide who we want to serve us on the city council.
I’m glad that you were a responsible citizen and you’ve already cast your vote and made your voice heard.
Or did you? I know I did.
But what about you? Chances are very high that you didn’t.
Because in last year’s primary election, only 8.5-percent of the registered voters in Bell County voted. That means 128,107 registered voters did not vote. What part of the percentage were you?
Thus far only 404 people have cast their vote in the city election. That’s 404 out of roughly 7,000 registered voters. A mere 5.7-percent.
Do you realize what the vote difference was between third and fourth place last year? Between winner and loser?
Five votes. Five votes made the difference between one woman serving on the council and another man left outside.
Of course, that may have been the way you wanted it, and that’s fine. If you voted, I have no problem with that. But with such a low voter turnout, realize that every single vote counts.
Now you still have until May 3 to vote early and you can also vote May 7, but what happens if your car breaks down between now and then? What if your child gets sick? And why the heck would you want to wait and risk not being able to vote?
It may not seem like a big deal to most people, but it’s very sickening to me.
A nationwide study released on Tuesday showed that only 7.2% of registered voters had voted in the last year’s primaries before Tuesday’s elections in Texas, Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana.
So, congratulations Bell County, we beat the national curve last year, but I’m not applauding.
Two of my cousins have spent time in the Middle East protecting my freedom and giving freedom to people who have never had the opportunity to taste it.
Over 1000 young Americans have died in Iraq so that a people they’ve never met can go to their polls and elect a president.
These fine American soldiers fought and died so that a ruthless dictatorship could be overthrown and our country could sleep securely at night.
And the Iraqi people came out with threats of death to the polls.
Over 50-percent of them voted, knowing they could be shot on the spot, or hunted down and killed later.
Yet in the midst of a world war and in the midst of a heated presidential election, as a county we only sent 12,373 people to the polls last year in Bell County. That’s less than the population of Belton.
Now granted, I love Belton. I don’t want to live anywhere else. In fact as you probably know, I bought a house in Belton.
But if I lived in Temple, or Harker Heights or Killeen or anywhere else in Bell County, I wouldn’t like it one bit if the citizens of Belton began making decisions for me and deciding who would represent me and who would stand up for my concerns.
Who are they to decide my representation? Would you let a stranger off the street pick a lawyer to represent you in a major lawsuit?
I want the best possible representation I can get whenever I can get it. I want someone I can trust handling my business. And if they’re not doing a good job, rather than sit around and complain, I’m going to fire them.
I’m not going to walk up to a phone book and play “Ouiji directory” and you shouldn’t either. When it comes to electing our public officials, we each have a choice.
On May 7 we have the opportunity to select our representation for city council and vote to approve a new city charter. Don’t let some stranger come and steal your right to choose our city’s leadership.
Five minutes (and five votes) can change the course of history.
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