The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Democracy moves in a sometimes mysterious way

5:28 PM Saturday, November 7, 2009

If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.

—Emma Goldman

Emma Goldman was an anarchist with a dim view of the democratic process. She was wrong about voting. Voting changes everything, just not always in a predictable way.

Elections are invigorating displays of democracy in action.

Unless you work for a newspaper, in which case they are often maddening arguments for totalitarian rule or perhaps anarchy if you take any pride in thinking you know how politics works.

I’ve covered them as a reporter, I’ve organized their coverage as an editor, and I’ve opined about them as the person in charge of this page.

On election night, I’m nearly always blind-sided by some vote that does change things and this past week’s results were no exception.

I believe this is the first time we’ve reported a win by a mayor who may not actually live in the place where he’s mayor. I didn’t even think that was possible.

As an amateur political clinician, I take this as a clear sign that the village in question, Tremont City, has some problems.

I moderated a candidates’ forum there prior to the election, and the candidates opposed to the current council didn’t show up, including the candidate who is now the newly elected mayor of a town whose limits stop short of his property line.

Everyone who did show up at the forum seemed ready to reach out for compromise of some sort, but the undercurrent was of a community split apart without much hope of finding a middle ground. It was kind of sad.

A happier view of democracy was the Springfield City Commission race.

Joyce Chilton took a lot of people to school on how to run a campaign here, including a pretty savvy political science professor who finished behind her.

Chilton ran a grass-roots campaign that involved raising a respectable amount of money with going door-to-door to get her message out and winning the yard sign proliferation contest. I suspect there was also a secret factory somewhere churning out letters to the editor in support of her candidacy. (Please stop writing.)

This year is the first time we attempted to interview township trustees for endorsements. It was a lot of work to set up interviews and talk to all those running, but what we found out about trustees and townships actually was a surprise to us. Mostly that being a township trustee has to be one of the hardest jobs on the planet.

Trustees have to maintain cemeteries, plow snow and fix roads with a budget way south of adequate for a salary of something like $10,000 a year. I actually think we did a favor to the ones we didn’t endorse.

But the biggest election surprise was the passage of the Northwestern Local Schools building levy.

I’d have bet that only renewal levies would get approval this year. Voters in Northeastern Local, where buildings are probably in even worse shape than Northwestern’s, turned back a similar proposal.

Votes do change things, including my expectations.

Tom Hawkins is the editorial page editor of the Springfield News-Sun.

Share this article

ADD COMMENT

Comments feed

Do you mean everyone should stop writing? or just campaign support letter-writers for Ms. Chilton? (I get confused easily sometimes.) Do you still want people to express themselves, or not. I can't imagine that you would want all of us to just suddenly stop writing altogether. We certainly hope not. Best Wishes to you and all the editorial staff.

WriteOfWay
3:17 PM, 11/11/2009

REPORT ABUSE

This article has slight variations from the printed commentary. Apparently, it has been formatted to fit your screen. (or mine)

Incredible
2:36 PM, 11/9/2009

REPORT ABUSE

Another insightful article. Thank you.

Bird'sEyeView
11:24 AM, 11/8/2009

REPORT ABUSE

We welcome your comments. Please remember this is a public forum and behave appropriately. Your comments must conform to our visitor's agreement.