This week’s “Daily Journal” guest columnist is Melissa Mitchell, Administrative Assistant for the John Locke Foundation.
Just about this time last year, I noticed crews installing a sidewalk near Raleigh’s Brassfield Elementary School. At the time, I thought it was a silly place and time of year to install a sidewalk. The school year was almost over, and the sidewalk was dangerously close to two rural roads used by drivers who seldom observe the speed limit.
However, as the project progressed, it became even more bizarre. One end of the sidewalk ends at a main school driveway, while the other ends abruptly at a tree trunk. Crews installed the required ramps for the handicapped, but using the ramp would place the handicapped individual on a road with no other sidewalks. Any teacher brave enough to take students down this narrow walkway would soon force them to turn about-face and head back to school. The sidewalk simply goes nowhere.
The story became more bizarre when our subdivision newsletter announced that for a mere $76,000, Wake County would he happy to extend the sidewalk to our subdivision. The idea made no sense; because the school system capped enrollment at Brassfield, schoolchildren from our neighborhood no longer attended that school. I was left wondering which elected officials approved this ridiculous sidewalk and the ridiculous offer.
At the time of the sidewalk installation, candidates were competing in school board elections. Because of continual criticism of the school board, I assumed voters would turn out in droves, but the Wake Board of Elections’ records show only 8.6 percent of eligible voters participated. Bonds on that May ballot affected Apex, Cary, and Wake Forest, but voters did not seem concerned. Voters continued to show disinterest in the November municipal elections and school board run-off; turnout was 10.6 percent.
The sidewalk project and the low voter turnout numbers bothered me for the past year. Then the issue of voter disinterest came to a head when a recent Civitas Institute survey revealed that 64 percent of voters did not know that Democrats controlled both houses of the North Carolina General Assembly.
That survey number caused me to question a few people about voting in national, state, and local elections. Although this was by no means a scientific survey, the answers were honest and interesting. Many of those questioned were grassroots activists who worked to elect national officials. They knew national issues and candidates. But when it came to local and state elections, their answers surprised me.
Many said they never voted in local elections. One voter called those elections a waste of time because local officials just did what they wanted to do. That voter cited the example of the Raleigh Convention Center. Voters rejected the project, but it’s moving forward.
Another person told me she always voted for a particular state representative, even though he did not vote conservatively. The voter said she liked the legislator’s wife. While others said they always voted a straight-party ticket, they didn’t seem to care about nonpartisan judicial races. One person said she voted for all the women on the ballot. This same lack of interest extended to county officials. I’ll bet homeowners involved in the Kelo v. New London eminent domain case care about their local and judicial races.
Needless to say, the answers to these inquiries are disturbing. Obviously, voters do not realize decisions made by local and state officials impact our quality of life and tax burden far more directly than decisions made at the national level. Unless a school bond threatens to raise taxes or local roads are littered with potholes, many voters ignore state and local elections.
Until voters take an active interest in these races, we are doomed to a future of sidewalks to nowhere.