Both WFB Referendums Pass
( I would have posted this last night, but the NOW blog platform was not working.)
Here are the results:
YES on Question 1:
2719 - 1219 (69.2%)
YES on Question 2:
2054 - 1883 (52.2%)
I'm surprised at the turnout, nearly 4000 votes. In April, only 3,069 folks voted for 4 different Trustee candidates, 5 different School Board Candidates, and a handful of judges.
Interesting that almost 1000 more people come out for a referendum, than to elect leaders.
I guess the "the referendum was scheduled for low voter turnout" argument didn't work out so well, since there was a heavy turnout.
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Nine local candidates, twenty-nine local candidates...the number doesn't make a shred of difference if the voters can't easily find out information about the candidates, or, when there aren't clearly defined issues to energize the electorate.
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That's a good point.
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My $.02 on the discrepancy in voter turnout:
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Back to topjwwfb - Nov 04, 2009 7:25 PM - Report Abuse
I'll admit, I'm a lazy voter to a certain extent...you won't find me at any "candidate forum" in the school gym. (In the good old days, there were "newspapers" who paid "reporters" to attend and cover these events. I'm sure you and I agree on the lack of good local news coverage these days...this blog is the only spot I can find decent WFB news.) Unlike many, I do vote in each and every election. Local candidates need to know that a cheap (or free) internet/ blog site is necessary these days for voters to find out about them, and to provide more information than we folks at home get from a two-sentence quote on WFBNow.com.
kbuckley - Nov 04, 2009 11:08 AM - Report Abuse
I would say some of that is mitigated by the sheer volume of candidates and issues. Somewhere along the line, something for the DPI Superintendent race, several judge races, and 9 local candidates could have caught the eye of a voter. --
The DPI race especially had two candidates who were very different.
And the school race, where, while I wholly agree the platform is generally what's "best for schools" .. there was one candidate who certainly differentiated herself from others with her issues.
But I agree, you are mostly right. The referendum is much more black/white.
jwwfb - Nov 04, 2009 10:39 AM - Report Abuse
It's (relatively) easy to form an opinion on how to vote on a bond referendum. Between the school district website and the Yes Yes folks' site, there was lots of information available to form a decision.
In the spring election, if there was any meaningful, substantive difference between the candidates...it didn't come across in what little information was available to voters, like myself, scavenging for information in campaign websites, blogs, and online news sources. It didn't help that none of the school board folks put up a website...and only two trustee candidates had an online presence (you, with this blog, and Finnegan.)
Taking the school board race as an example, when you've got a bunch of folks running on the same plain vanilla platform of "I want to do what's best for our schools," can you really blame the voters for not knowing whom to vote for, and just staying home?