Last night, after a somewhat long Sanford Area Chamber of Commerce Banquet, I stopped by the Lee County Board of Elections office to check for returns for another story I was working on: The Lee County alcohol referendum.
An aside: Judging by the vote totals, many of you may not be aware that the county even held a vote yesterday on alcohol sales in the unincorporated areas of the county. Most all of the townships turned it down handily, which surprised me.
Anyway, as I walked into the board office, the first person I saw was Director Nancy Kimble, who was headed in the other direction for a smoke break. After exchanging pleasantries, I asked her how the votes were looking.
“Not too good at all,” she said.
Coming from an elections director, this is a loaded response. What did it mean? Was she actually taking a stance on the issue, saying that her side, either for or against, was losing badly? I think that is illegal.
But I soon realized that she wasn’t taking sides at all. As Elections Director, Kimble is concerned mostly with making sure as many people as possible are able to vote with ease. By saying it didn’t look good, she meant the elections in general looked bad, particularly turnout.
As the vote totals later in the night pointed out, less than 4 percent of the eligible voters participated in the referendum — a whopping 736, with 49 of those coming at the county’s one-stop office. That low a number is not even worth Kimble’s time, especially with a busy presidential election cycle ahead.
And the county had to spend at least $10,000 to hold the referendum, opening all 13 precincts. Holding the vote in January was a waste of time, resources and money. You can put the onus on the voters, saying it is their responsibility to get out and vote. But it isn’t their fault that a measly vote on alcohol wasn’t enough for them to take time out of their schedules to vote. If I lived in the county areas, I can’t say that I would have voted either.
The vote should have been held with the May primaries, when a tax referendum will also likely be on the ballot and voters will likely decide who they want to run for governor, senate and several important local elections. That will easily bring out at least 40 percent of the voters in this county, which is a bigger sample size and would give a better representation of the residents’ feelings on the issue.
Plus, the county would have saved money and not wasted Kimble and the rest of the hard-working staff’s time. One pollworker told me she read an entire Nicholas Sparks book Tuesday while waiting on voters to show up. Another precinct reported just three voters all day long.
But it’s not the board of elections’ fault it was held Tuesday. The board had to hold the election within 60-120 days of the commissioners’ resolution calling for it. The commissioners should have held off on the resolution until late January or February so it could have been held in May.
A little better planning on the commissioners’ part would have made for a better vote and saved us some money.
Another aside: We young, vibrant reporters at the Herald have made a commitment recently to what Gordon Anderson deems “full contact journalism,” a philosophy wherein we get involved in the stories we report, something Hunter S. Thompson would be proud of.
I was thinking last night as I sat in the board of elections office about maybe volunteering to work a precinct in May for a story, detailing what actually goes into running an election. If you have never been to the board of elections on vote night, you should go check it out. Even in a night like Tuesday, where there were few votes to count, it was a madhouse.
All the volunteers for the elections office that help ensure Lee Countians their right to vote should be commended, and what better way to do that than through a first-person account? But I have yet to bring it up with my editors or Kimble…I’m not sure about the legalities of it. I will keep you informed.
