• May 6, 2014 Primary
• Nov 4, 2014 General

Retiring from Voting

I'm thinking about retiring from political voting, so that I can pursue other projects, spend more time with my family, and give others a chance to vote, especially young people :)

November 2013 may have been my last vote. Month 11 and year 13, a couple nice prime numbers. That's a good mathematical time to retire.

For years, my main reason to go to the polls has been to select local candidates and to vote on local issues. Statewide issues are secondary. I don't care much for anything at the federal level, which seems to occupy most people's time.

I've been mostly interested in municipal and county politics, but even this interest has waned in the past few years. It seems, however, that plenty of local political fodder exists to keep media and fans fascinated.

But after observing Toledo and Lucas County politics since 2001 when I moved into the city, the issues have become repetitive and boring. The names may change, slightly, but the responses by pols and most voters remain the same.

The number of Toledoans voting for local candidates and issues has dropped significantly, since 2005. And the 2005 turnout numbers were much lower compared to participation back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Of course, Toledo's population has declined significantly over the past 20 to 30 years.

Even in 2013, plenty of eligible voters existed in Toledo, but only 25 percent voted in the November 2013 election, which elected a new Toledo mayor and the six at-large Toledo City Council seats.

Obviously, voting is not the only way to help a city. In fact, voting may be the least that someone can do.

But if one believes that elections are important, then the mayoral and at-large council elections are Toledo's most important votes.

It's interesting how the same names or the same family names remain active and successful in Toledo and Lucas County politics. A few new people sneak in briefly, but it's not easy to crack the one-party, politically-dominant machine that is so big that it has two local factions.

Even within this A-B party, if a candidate, even an incumbent, upsets the party only a little, then that candidate loses machine support at the next election.

If I lose interest at the local level, then I definitely don't care about politics at any other level.

I think that we'll create our own projects to help improve the city in a small way. And we'll rejoin groups that do good work at the local level.

I used to tutor adults in the library's Read for Literacy program. I'd like to do that again for adults and/or students. A teaching gene runs in our family.

Since I stopped working at the Black Swamp Bird Observatory in November 2012, I'm not "teaching" anymore. Educating students and adults about nature, mainly birds, is part of the BSBO's mission.

My 2007 post titled Theory - The non-voters are happier than the voters, which included my comments or theories from a 2005 ToledoTalk.com thread and my little "poem" from 2008.

Vote.
Don't vote.
Makes no difference.
Happy people versus unhappy people.
Non-voters are more enlightened and cheerful than voters.
What you don't know can't hurt you, which leads to ignorance is bliss.
Too much time required to know the issues.
Take a class or volunteer.
Visit family, friends.
Diet, exercise.
Live.

May 6, 2014 Primary

I did not vote today. I'm unsure if we had anything to vote on in our district or precinct. I assume we did, since a state-wide issue existed. But since I know nothing like Sgt Schultz, it was wise for me not to vote. I didn't miss voting.

This was the first election that I missed since I began voting in Toledo in 2002. I moved into Toledo in the late summer of 2001, but I did not register to vote in time for the September and November 2001 elections.

http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2014/05/06/Low-voter-turnout-as-election-day-gets-under-way.html

As of late today, 6.5 percent of Lucas County’s 312,412 registered voters had turned out for the election, Elections Director Gina Kaczala said.

How much did this election cost? Maybe the whole thing should be conducted through the mail. Vote by mail.

http://toledobladedata.com/electionresults/

http://www.toledoblade.com/Politics/2014/05/06/S-Toledo-district-results-will-not-be-posted-until-later-today.html -- #moronism #humor

Voters in District 2 cast paper ballots only because the city’s filing deadline did not leave enough time to load the race onto voting machines.

Four are vying to fill the seat vacated by D. Michael Collins after his victory over Mayor Mike Bell. Incumbent Matt Cherry, a Democrat and business agent for Sheet Metal Workers Local 33 — who was appointed to the seat by council when Mayor D. Michael Collins took office — is attempting to retain the post in today's special election against challengers Democrat Bob Vasquez, a member of the Toledo Board of Education since 2008; Republican Joe Celusta, and political independent Marcia Helman, a South Toledo business owner.

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My May 7, 2014 comment at ToledoTalk.com.

(another user wrote:)

"... did you vote yesterday?"

No. I did not know that we had something on the ballot. It's the first election that I missed since moving into the city more than a decade ago. But it's okay because months ago, I got inspired by others and retired from voting to spend more time with my family and to pursue other interests. I'm more interested in tomorrow's NFL draft.

Nov 4, 2014 General

I did not vote. I did not pay close attention to the candidates and issues. I was aware of local levies, but I didn't spend time researching them.

I have other interests.

#toledo - #ohio - #politics - #blog_jr