Lately we’ve been hearing from all sorts of people encouraging us to care about democracy and to vote. There have even been tables around campus where you can get the forms to register to vote in New York.
I would encourage all of you to pay attention when the elections are and vote, either in Troy or in your hometown. If you aren’t around for the elections, you can always request an absentee ballot ahead of time. Absentee ballots are great because they give you more time to think about the issues and fill them out at your leisure, as long as your town receives them by election day.
I have a personal example from last week that proved to me just how important it is to keep abreast of when elections are.
Last week I went home for a funeral. When I got home my parents told me that my town was voting that day, and that I only had a half an hour to go vote before we had to leave for the wake. I was a bit confused because my town votes in March, but I went to vote anyway.
It turns out that we were revoting on the teachers’ salary increases. In the regular school and town elections the salary increases were voted down. The School Board took it to the court and got a revote granted. They posted the appropriate notices in enough public places, and placed information in a local newspaper beforehand.
Only roughly 17 percent of the voting constituency in my town revoted on the issue, but it passed this time. This was a case of the minority being able to reverse a decision made democratically because not enough people who voted against the salary increases the first time came out and voted the second time.
Now everyone, even the people who voted down the salary increases in the first election, will have to pay for them, and it doesn’t matter if they didn’t know about the special elections.
Because of the inaction of many, a decision made democratically got overturned legally by a minority of the population—and we are going to have to pay for it next year.
