Post-election day

So it's done. Another election, another ballot cast.

Where I'm at in FSJ, we have a new Mayor and two new councillors (four were re-elected), and a voter turnout of approximately 21%.

That is appalling.

I don't know if it's just that people really don't give a shit who makes the decisions for them, or they're just too fucking lazy to make the trek down to the voting station – whatever their reason, beyond being in a coma on life support, it's unacceptable.

I get that people have other responsibilities – many people up here work in camp, so when you're stuck in the middle of buttfuck nowhere, it's a little difficult to get into town.

But this is why there is advanced voting. I know a lot of people who participated in that. But how do we light a fire under the ass of the rest of the population?

I also heard from a few people that they didn't feel informed enough to make a decision. Do you know whose fault that is? It's yours, for not getting yourself informed. It's like everyone wants all the pertinent info served up to them on a silver platter before they make a decision. You are all very capable people, you can be a little proactive and find out what the candidates all believe if you just opened your eyes and paid attention. Read the local websites and newspapers, they all had info on all the candidates. So that excuse really doesn't hold water.

Maybe we need to be like Australia and make voting mandatory. If you don't vote in any election, you get fined. Or maybe have it be something you can claim on your tax return? I check the little box saying 'Yes, I Voted This Year' and the government adds five bucks to your refund.

It's not much, but Hell, five bucks is five bucks.

Into the beer fund you go!

Or, as I've heard bandied about in the past, maybe we need to step into the 21st Century and do online voting. If I can file my taxes and fill out the census form online, surely to jeebus I should be able to securely cast my vote in any election.

I recently read an article saying that maybe we need to pre-register high school students to vote before they turn 18. I think it should go a step further, and introduce election conduct into the curriculum. Make it part of CAPP class (do they still even have that anymore?), like the mandatory work experience they have to do (they still have to do that, right?).

It could even be a mandatory elective. Kids would learn why their vote really does count (and it really does – in Radium Hot Springs, a councillior beat out her competition by one vote, for serious!), and how different the outcome of an election would be effected if 20, 50, 75 and 100% of the population voted. Hold mock-elections where only a certain number of kids would be allowed to vote, and see the results before increasing the number of participants. If they could actually see that in front of them, the lesson might stick as they get older.

Hook 'em while they're young, like the tobacco industry.

Ahh, sweet, sweet voting.... goes down smooth.

Our own election in FSJ could have had a very different outcome if all 12,000+ registered voters actually came out. There was only a 60 vote difference between the top two mayoral candidates! We could have a different mayor now if more people voted. Or the winning one would have won by a landslide (and contrary to what I saw a few people posting online last night, she did not win be a landslide – maybe compared to the third mayoral candidate, but not compared to the second candidate. Just sayin').

Maybe I just need to stop getting my hopes up that the population is going to step up and do their civic duty. I'd be less disappointed and could walk around saying 'I told you so, you fuckwads!'

As I once saw on a t-shirt in NYC: Fuck you, you fucking fucks!

But the thing is, those who don't vote really have no right to complain about how the city is being run for the next three years. I know they will complain, especially with winter being upon us and EVERYONE loves to bitch and moan about how long it takes to get the streets plowed. What we need is for everyone to wear a little spring-loaded box with a boxing glove inside that is triggered to release whenever people who didn't vote start whining about how the city is being run. Every time you bitch, you get punched in the face.

That's a pretty feasible deterrent, right?

This is our last election for awhile, the next one being the provincial one in 2013. Maybe a nice little year-and-a-half break from doing anything related to voting will be good for those suffering from voter fatigue.

We can only hope, world. We can only hope.

Ballots and Bitching,

Ginger.