{"id":5013,"date":"2014-05-06T14:41:25","date_gmt":"2014-05-06T19:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/?p=5013"},"modified":"2014-05-16T20:28:51","modified_gmt":"2014-05-17T01:28:51","slug":"gave-election-foxboro-everyone-stayed-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/?p=5013","title":{"rendered":"What if they gave an election in Foxboro and most everyone stayed home?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ballot\"by Robert Gillis<\/em>
\nPublished in the Foxboro Reporter 5\/2014<\/em><\/p>\n

So before I go on my little rant here\u2026 A full disclosure so I\u2019m not a hypocrite.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t vote last Monday.<\/p>\n

Yep, the guy who moderated candidate\u2019s night and is always reminding everyone what a privilege it is to be able to vote didn\u2019t show up at the polls Monday May 5, 2014.<\/p>\n

But I had a good excuse — I didn\u2019t vote on Monday because Saturday, my car broke down with a bad case of shredded serpentine belt, broken water pump and wasn\u2019t going anywhere. And my beloved\u2019s car was also in repair. I was effectively grounded.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s my excuse. Now, with my own confession out of the way, why didn\u2019t YOU vote?<\/p>\n

Yes, I am sure that many folks can\u2019t vote because of work, family, health, or other obligations.<\/p>\n

And we all know that people all over this land don\u2019t vote because they feel their votes doesn\u2019t make a difference or they don\u2019t care. I don\u2019t agree, but fair enough.<\/p>\n

But almost eleven thousand registered voters in Foxboro, and 1671<\/strong><\/span> show up at the polls Monday? Less than 15%? Seriously?<\/p>\n

There was only one contested race this year, but it was arguably the most important \u2013 selectman.<\/p>\n

I met both of the men running for the selectmen’s seat at candidates night, and both of them seem like great guys and both are certainly qualified for the job. I would like to say congratulations to Dave Feldman, and also thank you to Mark Sullivan for his service as selectmen. It was a tough choice this year \u2013 two good guys who ran a clean campaign and both well-suited to the job. Truth? I liked both of them for the job.<\/p>\n

But I didn\u2019t vote. And neither did most of you \u2013 almost 85%<\/p>\n

What I fail to comprehend is why it takes a volatile issue like a dog park, or neighbor-against-neighbor battle over a casino to get people to come to the polls.<\/p>\n

See, this happens EVERY year. Unless there\u2019s a volatile issue, you\u2019ll see the words \u201cLow turnout\u201d in the story after the election. And usually, only about 15% of us vote.<\/p>\n

Historically, why is there so much voter apathy in this town?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no apathy online; there\u2019s no shortage of angry words and opinions on social media, where folks regularly vilify various elected officials as something a little worse than the Antichrist. It\u2019s all \u201cImpeach this one,\u201d and \u201cDid you see what this one said at the meeting?\u201d<\/p>\n

Conversely, online, there\u2019s also a lot of good conversation and thoughtful insight.<\/p>\n

But did these folks come out to vote? Judging by the numbers, I guess not.<\/p>\n

Every week we read about the serious issues facing this town \u2013 what to do about town hall, a sewer system, train station expansion, relations with our neighbors on Route One, ensuring the safety of the children given the abuse that happened years ago\u2026 The list goes on and on. And on. And on. We\u2019re a town of 17,000 and growing. I cannot imagine the pressure on our elected officials and boards to keep things running smoothly.<\/p>\n

Imagine how they feel when so few people even bother to vote for them.<\/p>\n

See, it BOTHERED me that I didn\u2019t vote Monday. I should have called someone to give me a ride to the polls. That I didn\u2019t \u2013 it BOTHERS me.<\/p>\n

But to the 85% who didn\u2019t vote this past week, why is that? And why is it pretty much 80-85% EVERY year?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to preach, not going to offer my own philosophical solutions, not going into my usual \u201cvoting is a sacred privilege\u201d thing, because obviously 85% of the registered voters don\u2019t feel that way.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll just say this: If you don\u2019t vote, maybe it\u2019s time to ask yourself WHY.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Robert Gillis Published in the Foxboro Reporter 5\/2014 So before I go on my little rant here\u2026 A full disclosure so I\u2019m not a hypocrite. I didn\u2019t vote last Monday. Yep, the guy who moderated candidate\u2019s night and is always reminding everyone what a privilege it is to be able to vote didn\u2019t show […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-foxboro","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5013\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}