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Turnout the way it should be
Published November 5, 2008
At the time of this writing, we still don’t know who will be the next president of the United States, so I’m going to save my election analysis for another day.
But one thing we do already know regardless of the outcome: a lot of people, a far greater number than usual, wanted to have a say in the matter.
Here in Walton County, for example, approximately 17,000 voters, or approximately 36 percent of the county’s 47,000 registered voters, already cast their ballots last week during early voting. To put that in perspective, only approximately 1,200 voters, or 2 percent of the registered voters, took advantage of early voting during the party primaries in July.
And for a basis of further comparison, I think it is important to note the early voting numbers for the General Election easily outpace the total number of ballots cast during the party primaries, with only about 10,000 voters, or 22 percent of those registered locally, taking part in the primary elections.
Which is noteworthy because the vast majority of the contested local races, including such high-profile offices as sheriff and commission chairman, were essentially decided during the Republican Primary because the winners of the primary faced no Democratic opposition in the General Election.
So you don’t have to be some big-time political pundit to know Election Day is clearly a referendum on the presidency, which is really how is should be, isn’t it?
“I think it is terrific,” Jerry Connell, chairman of the Walton County Board of Elections, told me last week when we were discussing the early voting numbers. “We preach all the time that people need to vote, to participate in the process, and this year they are and obviously I think a lot of it has to do with the presidential election.”
The state is predicting 80 percent of the registered voters in Georgia will have taken part in this year’s General Election once all the ballots have been counted. Connell predicts an even higher percentage of voter turn out here in Walton County.
And regardless of the outcome, isn’t this kind of participation really how it should be?
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