Integrity or Elected Office – Make Your Choice

Why is it so hard to have integrity and win elected office, even harder to have integrity and be re-elected to office? Is it really a failure of the candidates? That is an easy answer, but not wholly truthful. We need to consider who is actually responsible. Listen to a candidate, “If I do not take those offered party lines there is no way that I can win.”

Behind that candidate’s statement is, “the conditions of the election are such that …” So our investigation turns to the conditions of the election. Candidates pay careful attention to winning a majority of the voters who turn out to vote. Our media focuses heavily on the majority, but take careful notice of the other element: “the voters who turn out to vote.” Voter turnout is a key element that sets the conditions of the election – conditions that candidates ignore at their peril.

When turnout is low, then any guaranteed block of votes can carry quite a bit of weight in determining the “majority.” They can be the affiliation of a small party line. They can be a group of voters organized into a block in any number of ways. They can be voters “rounded up” through an aggressive campaign using absentee ballots. But the real reason that any of these carry weight is the fact of low turnout. If the turnout were as high as 80% then none of these elements would matter very much.

How can we then change the conditions – to allow candidates to be elected with integrity and to eliminate the power of dirty politics? By turning out to vote. Regardless of who you vote for, regardless of whether you cast a blank ballot, regardless of whether you write in the name of the person you wish would run for office, you play an important role just by coming to the polls – WE set the conditions. WE can change the conditions. Here is the bottom line: your turnout matters as much as your vote.