Only 16% voted!

In the most recent election, only 16% of our electorate voted. Maybe it was because it was ‘just’ for the city council, or ‘just’ for the school board. However, these are some of the most important elections to vote in.

Let’s look at some things that are happening in school these days:
- 13-Year-Old Arrested In School For Writing On Desk
- Substitute teacher put clothespins on kids’ lips
- Fla. student who mooned teacher sues
- Principal admits throwing excrement (on a child)
- Mother Defends Student Charged With Terrorism
- Teachers drop the Holocaust to avoid offending Muslims

These are some headlines that I have found in just the last couple of days. Is this what we expect in our schools? From our students AND our teachers? Are our schools there to provide daycare, or are they there to teach? Have we made our teachers jobs impossible?

So far, this has not turned into a major issue in Topeka (well, there were those bus issues last year, and the missing funds....), but how long will it be if 84% of our registered voters turn their backs on our children by not voting? What does it say about our city when 84% of the voters in the city don’t care enough about the city to ‘have their say’?

Maybe it is better to have low turnout. Because that means that a go-getting candidate who wants to take over power stands a good chance if he/she can simply assist 200 people who normally don’t vote, to vote. That difference would have swung nearly every election result this year the opposite way.

Now, I ask you. Did YOU vote? If not, WHY didn’t you vote? Is it because you don’t care about the City of Topeka? Or you don’t care about our students? Or is it a flaw in our voting system that simply makes you not want to utilize it?