{"id":11381,"date":"2015-10-24T03:27:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-24T03:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=11381"},"modified":"2015-10-24T03:27:00","modified_gmt":"2015-10-24T03:27:00","slug":"heavy-early-interest-in-mpev-vote-bodes-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=11381","title":{"rendered":"Heavy early interest in MPEV vote bodes well"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I’m going to set aside my bias in favor of\u00a0downtown Amarillo’s proposed multipurpose event venue for a moment … or maybe two.<\/p>\n

Instead, I want to offer high praise for the apparently strong interest in the upcoming election.<\/p>\n

The MPEV is on the citywide ballot Nov. 3. It’s a non-binding referendum that will ask voters if they want to proceed with an MPEV that includes a ballpark component.<\/p>\n

You know my feelings on it. I’m all in on the proposed $32 million project. I have favored it from the beginning.<\/p>\n

But the point here is that the early portion of the early vote seems to suggest a greater-than-normal interest in this issue.<\/p>\n

On one hand, that’s not saying much, given the pitiful, abysmal and disgraceful turnout percentages that usually greet municipal elections in Amarillo.<\/p>\n

We elected a City Council this past May with a turnout that barely cracked double-digits. And yet the winners all declared some kind of mandate for change. I don’t buy the mandate part.<\/p>\n

Yes, I honor and respect the results, as they reflected a majority of those who turned out. The reality, though, is that it was a majority of a tiny minority<\/em> of those who not only were registered to vote, but who were eligible to vote. When you factor in the voter eligibility<\/em> number, the percentage of turnout plummets even further.<\/p>\n

The early turnout for the MPEV vote appears to be bucking the norm in Amarillo, where folks traditionally have let others decide these issues.<\/p>\n

This morning I happened to ask Paul Matney, the retired Amarillo College president who’s now co-chairing the Vote FOR Amarillo effort to win an MPEV endorsement at the polls about the early surge in turnout.<\/p>\n

He offered a couple of ideas. One is that it might be a backlash against some of the negativity that’s been occurring at City Hall. He wonders whether voters might be saying they’ve had enough of the back-biting that has accompanied the three newest council members’ involvement in public policy discussions. Voter might not be necessarily in favor of the MPEV, but they want to send a message to City Hall that they’re sick and tired of the negative commentary, Matney wondered.<\/p>\n

He also wonders whether there’s an actual positive turnout in favor of the MPEV … or if there’s the reverse taking place, that voters are expressing genuine anger.<\/p>\n

He shrugged today and said, “I just don’t know” what’s driving the turnout.<\/p>\n

Whatever the case, both sides of the divide have said the same thing: Be sure to vote. Make your voice heard. Speak out with your ballot.<\/p>\n

That’s wise advice, no matter how you feel about the MPEV.<\/p>\n

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I’m going to set aside my bias in favor of\u00a0downtown Amarillo’s proposed multipurpose event venue for a moment … or maybe two. Instead, I want to offer high praise for the apparently strong interest in the upcoming election. The MPEV is on the citywide ballot Nov. 3. It’s a non-binding referendum that will ask voters … Continue reading Heavy early interest in MPEV vote bodes well<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[288,295,1436,1496,3153,3522],"class_list":["post-11381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-amarillo-city-council","tag-amarillo-college","tag-downtown-amarillo","tag-early-voting","tag-mpev","tag-paul-matney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11381"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11382,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11381\/revisions\/11382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}