Laura Tate
Don’t take our
democracy for granted
The primary is over, and not many registered voters of Malibu participated in casting votes on June 6-only 18 percent turned out at the polls (see story, “How Malibu voted” on page A1). That’s almost half the amount of voters (33.9 percent) who participated in the City Council election in April-and that was considered a low turnout for the 8,418 registered voters (minus the dog, Melissa Aurora May, see story, “Voter fraud dogs Malibu father” on page A1) of Malibu.
Ralph Erickson, president of the Malibu Democratic Club, says the low turnout has to do with voter apathy and ignorance.
Lorraine Stalberg, program co-chair of Malibu Republican Women, Federated, said: “We don’t think about freedom. We take it for granted, although it’s bought so dearly. It really is important to vote.”
As Erickson says in our A1 story, to vote is to “put us in the picture.”
Some might say the negative campaigning and our government bodies being filled with dishonest, money-grubbing (and spending) unaccountable thieves is enough to turn them away from even thinking about voting.
But that’s the point in having a say—trying to help choose someone who will be honest; someone who will work for the people of their county, district, state or for the country.
And to have a say in what we should or should not spend money on. (Personally, as a homeowner who pays taxes on all those bonds that get passed, I want to know what’s happened to the money from the past library, school and other bonds, and until I do know, which might be never, I will always vote “No” on bonds unless there’s a damn good explanation for having it.)
Forget about negative campaigns- look at the Iraqi people. They faced death threats, the prospect of suicide bombers and more yet, according to CNN, almost 70 percent of the Iraqi people turned out to vote in their country’s Dec. 15 election for a four-year parliament. That was a greater percentage than Americans who voted in the 2004 presidential election.
Nov. 7 is the general election.
There are four and a half months to become educated on the issues and the people.
Let’s stop taking our way of life for granted.