Asheville News

Elections: partisan (yawn) or not?

Jason Sandford June 22, 2007

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

Battle lines have been drawn, e-mails have been flying and Ashvegas City Council is divided, all over whether or not – wait for it – city council elections should be partisan.

Since 1994, council candidates have run non-partisan races, without the Republican or Democrat or Libertarian or independent tags. But council recently voted to reinstate partisan elections. That action has sparked a petition move calling for a referendum on the issue.

Somebody wake us up when this bluster is over. The only reason we’re bringing it up is that everyone keeps talking to us about it. Why don’t we care? Because, really, nobody else does. Ever look at the turn-out numbers for the past few primary and regular elections? Only a few thousand people come out to vote, and that number has been about 20 percent of registered voters. If you consider all eligible voters, the percentage probably drops even lower.

So we really don’t care. Ashvegas is a small enough town that everybody already knows if you’re a Democrap or a Republicant. And we know some of you will go on and on about the process, it’s all about the process, the process needs to be open to everyone. Blah blah blah. The process is already so effed up beyond repair that it’s hopeless. Guess what – that’s why nobody cares.

Scrutiny Hooligans has covered the issue well. Read more over there if you’re interested. We’re done.

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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9 Comments

Screwy Hoolie June 24, 2007

Good back and forth between Tim Peck and Cecil Bothwell in <a href="http://www.scrutinyhooligans.us/?p=3445">this comment thread at Scrutiny Hooligans</a>

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Homer June 23, 2007

A to the P says this keeps the 15,000 independents from voting. Wrong. Independents can vote for either Dems or Reps in the primary and general elections. All this change does is require candidates to identify their party affiliation. Sort of like truth-in-advertising for voters.

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Homer June 23, 2007

A to the P says this keeps the 15,000 independents from voting. Wrong. Independents can vote for either Dems or Reps in the primary and general elections. All this change does is require candidates to identify their party affiliation. Sort of like truth-in-advertising for voters.

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Hail to the Chef June 22, 2007

What if I were to chnage the law to say that Democrats had to jump through a nearly impossible signature drive to get on the ballot, and that Democrats couldn’t vote in primaries.

I bet that would get your attention as much as it did the 12 or 15 or however many thousand independent voters like me (sadly, we have no libertarian canidates in asheville lately, so i’m registered independent).

The only thing lazier than not voting, is to do what your doing right now. "Oh, it doesn’t affect me, so why should I care?"

Isn’t that attitude exactly what you were just complaining about in your post?

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Edgy Mama June 22, 2007

Yes, e-mails have been a-flying. How can I get off some these lists? CAN is the worst for over e-mailing.

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Hail to the Chef June 22, 2007

Also…if nobody cares, why does "everyone keep talking to you about it".

Did you even read your own post??? LOL.

I mean yeah, voter turn out sucks, but why make the problem worse by exluding more than a third of your cities voters???

If you see a house fire, you don’t run up and throw gasoline on it, do you?

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A to the P June 22, 2007

The reason it sucks is that it makes it almost impossible for independent voters to vote in asheville…and since independent voters outnumber republicans, and are almost as many as democrats, that means 15,000 people get shut out of the election process.

That’s why it sucks. It’s a straight up ploy to keep about 5 city council members perpetually in there seats, and to keep the independets out.

I expected as much out of Brian freeborne, that whiney idiot that couldn’t even get fairly elected in the first place, but to see browney pull this shit is WEAK!!!

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Ash June 22, 2007

amen, sister

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Jennifer June 22, 2007

While shopping at the Farmer’s Market the other day, a woman tried to get me to sign the "Let Asheville Vote" petition. I told her that I needed to educate myself better on the issue, and couldn’t sign anything until I’d thought things through.

I’ve thought things through. This city is threatened by overdevelopment and a 23-story luxury high-rise is about to tower over Biltmore Ave, and the thing that really gets Asheville people off their asses is the decision to return to partisan municipal elections? Come on. My official response is to realize how much better my time can be spent than on supporting time-wasting non-issues like this one.

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