Civic Election 2010

I admit, sometimes I don't care much about elections. Sometimes I haven't voted. And my justification has generally been that it won't count. I know many people don't like that. But these elections have been cases where Candidate A gets 80% of the vote and B gets 20%. It stands to reason that if all the abstainers were forced to vote, about 80% of them would vote A and 20% B. Even a completely random vote would put it at 50%-50%, which still wouldn't have an impact on the winner. The only significant issue is if there was something about their positions that resulted in all of A's supporters voting while all of B's stayed home... and in that case, B probably deserved to lose.

This years civic election is a completely different situation. The now-famous poll showing a 32%-30%-30% (4% error) shows that there is truly a 3-way tie. This time, everyone's vote really does make a difference, and for a change I actually do think it's irresponsible of people not to do some research and cast their vote. And considering how our incumbent mayors never lose (Klein 9 yrs, Duerr 11 years, Bronconnier 9 years, each one leaving by their own choice) this matters even more.