Eleven percent! I hope Princeton voters will pay attention to what happened down the highway over this weekend.
That was the turnout of registered voters in Farmersville, Texas, for a citywide election to determine three seats on the City Council and — this is critical — to determine the fate of a proposal to adopt a home-rule charter for the city.
With that, 11% of the city’s registered voters managed to drag themselves to the polls to cast their votes.
I am terribly dissatisfied with the turnout. Granted, the results of the balloting are a different matter. I will speak specifically of the home-rule charter result.
That is a big fu**ing deal, to borrow a quote from the current president of the United States who muttered it while serving as VP as Congress approved the Affordable Care Act.
The home-rule charter passed with a 174-59 vote in favor of the proposal. By my calculation, that presents an 11.3% turnout of registered votes. That miserable turnout prompts me to ask: What in the name of voter apathy does a city have to do get people interested enough to vote on a matter as critical as this?
State law required the city to distribute copies of the proposed home-rule charter to every registered voter in Farmersville. City Secretary Tabatha Monk did as she was instructed. With the help of Collin County’s election office, she determined the voter count in the city stood at 2,122.
Every registered voter in Farmersville received a copy of the document. I have tried on this blog to explain the significance of a city being able to set its own rules without having to rely on state statutes. I guess few of our friends in Farmersville were paying attention.
Local elections allow voters to make decisions on those who set policies that have a direct impact on our lives. Strangely — and shamefully — these local elections almost always seem to produce the kind of turnouts we saw on Saturday down the road in Farmersville.
I now must wonder what my neighbors in Princeton will do when they get the chance to vote on a home-rule charter. It might be later this year, or it could be in the spring of 2023. The city is working now on a document to present to voters. We’ll all get copies of the charter when it’s ready to present.
I will vote on it. As I said about the Farmersville charter, it’s a really big … deal!