The Election in Southern View

     I want to start by congratulating the trustees elected to office in the election.  The outcome of the election was no surprise, as there were three candidates for three seats. I’ll get back to the outcome; because it turns out it was not what would be expected.

     A few things should be pointed out before we analyze the results.  For the first time that anyone can remember, there was no announcement in the village bulletin letting residents know when election packets were available, nor when the deadline was to turn in the packet.  There was no mention of the election in the last bulletin, no reminder to vote, nothing.  There was however a recipe for some type of baked goods that was so memorable, what it was, slips my mind. I checked the village web-site to see what information was available; nothing.  The election is not even on the village calendar.  The point being, it was almost like the village board didn’t want us to know about the election.

     In fairness, the election board does not require the village to publish this information in the bulletin, or even post it in the office.  It is suggested that they do both, but not required.  The question is why they changed the policy of including this information in the bulletin.

     So, let’s get back to those election results.  We have three candidates running unopposed and two are incumbents.

     There are 1263 registered voters in the village. Of those, 148 or 11.21 percent cast ballots. Let’s break down those votes and see what we find.

James Foster – 102 votes, 46 under votes.

Greg Bourland – 104 votes, 44 under votes.

Gregory Hashman – 102 votes, 46 under votes.

Total under votes – 136

     What is an under vote?  Here is where it gets interesting; an under vote means that the voter did not vote for anyone in the race.  Their choice, given the candidates, was none of the above. That is a message the board should not ignore.  The real question is; will any of them understand it?

     I wonder if it makes the win less gratifying knowing you were all beat by none of the above.