{"id":11520,"date":"2015-11-06T20:47:28","date_gmt":"2015-11-06T20:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=11520"},"modified":"2015-11-06T20:47:28","modified_gmt":"2015-11-06T20:47:28","slug":"turnout-good-for-amarillo-but-its-still-poor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=11520","title":{"rendered":"Turnout good for Amarillo … but it’s still poor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Forgive the wet blanket I’m about to toss over some of the celebrations around Amarillo.<\/p>\n

I cannot let this go.<\/p>\n

The citywide referendum Tuesday that resulted in voters’ approval of a multipurpose event venue\/ballpark was a positive step for the city. I’ve heard some mild crowing, though, from those who are extolling the turnout.<\/p>\n

And what was it?<\/p>\n

It was about 23 percent. Twenty-three percent of the registered voters in Amarillo — that’s 22,444 of them — cast ballots on an election that led local newscasts for weeks. Print media covered it like a blanket. Advocates for and against the MPEV were seen and heard all over town.<\/p>\n

They placed ads calling on people to vote. They urged it in public forums and discussions televised on public TV.<\/p>\n

And with all the fire \u00a0and brimstone, hell and\u00a0damnation,\u00a0fury and ferocity — on both sides of the debate — four out of every five<\/em> registered voters in Amarillo, Texas, stayed home. They didn’t vote.<\/p>\n

Here’s something else to chew on. More than 13,000 residents voted early. That means about 9,000 of them voted on Election Day. I take little comfort in realizing that the Election Day turnout was so dismal.<\/p>\n

Hey, it’s even worse when you consider that if you count the number of people who are eligible<\/em> to vote, but who haven’t even bothered to register, the number plummets even farther.<\/p>\n

Do not misunderstand this, though. I am glad the turnout was far greater than it usually is on these municipal matters. The regular City Council elections routinely produce single- or low double-digit turnouts. So, compared to what is customary, a 23 percent turnout does look good.<\/p>\n

It’s all relative.<\/p>\n

Friends and neighbors, we can do a lot better than that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

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Forgive the wet blanket I’m about to toss over some of the celebrations around Amarillo. I cannot let this go. The citywide referendum Tuesday that resulted in voters’ approval of a multipurpose event venue\/ballpark was a positive step for the city. I’ve heard some mild crowing, though, from those who are extolling the turnout. And … Continue reading Turnout good for Amarillo … but it’s still poor<\/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,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,14],"tags":[3153,5583,5137],"class_list":["post-11520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","category-political-news","tag-mpev","tag-municipal-elections","tag-voter-turnout"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11520","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=11520"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11521,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11520\/revisions\/11521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}