Commentary by Larry Lannan
I hate to say I told you so. In this case, I am saying I told you so. It’s all about this year’s primary election.
The voter turnout was low – as in very low. In Fishers, the percentage of registered voters casting ballots was in the 15 to 16-percent range. In Hamilton County, the turnout was closer to 12 percent. Any way you look at it, the turnout was disappointing.
Here’s the biggest impact of this on you, the nonvoter. There were many close elections. What you nonvoters have done is place a tremendous amount of political power in the hands of those who chose to vote.
This is especially true in close races. We had plenty of close races in the Fishers 2014 city election.
A good deal of attention has been paid to the mayor’s race. No doubt, it was much closer than most had expected. Scott Fadness defeated Walt Kelly by only 393 votes. That’s only about a 4 percent winning margin for Fadness.
It was in the city council races where those choosing to vote made a real difference. The tightest contest was in the Northwest District, where Selina Stoller defeated Mike Colby by 12 votes. She won by a 0.78 percent margin.
In the Northeast District, Stuart Easley defeated the second place candidate Brad DeReamer by a mere 25 votes. That’s a 1.62 percent winning margin.
The at-large council race had six candidates, with the top three winning nominations. The third-best vote getter was Rich Block, who defeated the fourth place candidate Jeff Heinzmann by 69 votes. That’s a winning percentage of 0.31 percent (remember, each voter could choose three candidates, so a lot more votes were cast in this race).
Here’s how the nonvoters really lose. If 13 people had voted for Mike Colby in the Northwest Council District and Selina Stoller had the same number of votes, Mike Colby would have won the nomination for that council district. If 26 people had voted for Brad DeReamer and Stuart Easley had received the same number of votes, Brad DeReamer would be the Republican nominee.
You nonvoters lose again. In a Democracy, we are the government. We select our government officials at every level, from the President of the United States down to our mayor, city council and city clerk.
I really do hate to say I told you so. Think about that as the next election looms in November.
