The upside of poor voter turnout

Let’s all groan loudly about pathetic voter turnout.

Take a rolled up newspaper and slam it against the top of a stout table.

Again.

Again.

And again.

Use choice language in unleashing our frustration that so few adults are taking seriously their privilege, their responsibility, to elect the very best leaders available.

Finished? Good. Now, let’s analyze the new normal.

The new normal, in our view, is that American society is split into three groups. There are those who eagerly exercise their right to vote. These folks know the issues. They have an adequate understanding of the candidates and the candidates’ positions on key issues. What they don’t know they do their best to seek out. Society benefits.

The second group is comprised of people who are so wrapped up in life, for good and maybe not so good, that they pay little attention to the issues or the candidates. They might regret that they don’t vote, but because they’re working multiple jobs or have personal or family obligations so overwhelming, they won’t or can’t change the non-voting course they’re on. Maybe that will someday change, but not now, and probably not anytime soon.

The final group doesn’t give a damn. Some are apathetic: “My vote doesn’t matter, so why bother?” Some are oblivious: They live for the next cool podcast, TV program, video game or night out with friends. They don’t know the issues or the candidates, and until something happens that directly and acutely impacts them, they’ll stay the course of non-participation.

Sound like a fair assessment of the three groups? Then maybe we can agree on a key point.

Revisiting the old days of decent voter turnout in non-presidential elections is probably an unrealistic expectation. And considering the latter two groups described above, maybe that’s not all bad.

In Kootenai County, less than 23 percent of registered voters — one out of four of those who at least at some point were intent on voting — exercised that right in the May 17 primary election. It didn’t matter that a lot was at stake. Three quarters of the Kootenai County residents most likely to vote took a pass instead.

While many of those might be true independents who will show up come November, it seems plausible that a great many non-voters last week were simply not interested in the races or the outcome. And there’s the silver lining.

We would much rather have the uninformed, the life-is-too-busy, the apathetic stand on the sidelines than cast ballots based on abstract thoughts or meaningless associations. In real life, a small percentage of people do most of the heavy lifting. Some say 20 percent do 80 percent of the work. If that’s true, then our turnout on Tuesday was better than expected, and the results came out just right.

Three cheers to…

The Kootenai County Elections Office. While turnout might have disappointed some, our elections officials exceeded expectations. They were accurate. They were fast, posting final numbers at 10:47 p.m., which meant Press readers were able to see the results in the next day’s paper. And the array of voter complaints that usually make their way to The Press were absent this time around.

To County Clerk Jim Brannon, Chief Deputy Clerk Pat Raffee and Elections Manager Carrie Phillips, you were our top election day winners.