Gearing up for Election Day I went to the Delaware Department of Elections website so I could download a sample ballot. As I look down the list I know how I’m planning to vote for each office: Obama for President, Biden for Senator, Hartley-Nagle for Congress (though I’m tempted to write in Jerry Northington), Markell for Governor, and the list goes on but it all keeps swinging Democrat.
However, as I get towards the bottom and into offices of a much more local nature, I find my decision on how to vote becomes murky.
I become filled with doubt. For the offices of Clerk of the Peace, County Executive, President of County Council, and County Council Representative, the choice seems to be so clear, so simple. There’s only one person running for each of those offices. No Republican challengers for any of them. Not even a third party candidate that could force me to look into their stances on issues. And yet I’m torn on how to vote.
I know that these people are going to win, there’s no one opposing them. Presumably they’ll vote for themselves, so they’ll get at least one vote and my vote for them really won’t matter. It seems that simplest solution would be to just hit their name and move on. But I’m still torn. With the exception of County Council Representative, who’s daughter I went to high school with so I’d be happy to vote for her father, all the rest of the offices I’m not entirely happy about. Sure, I have no real gripe with the Clerk of the Peace. But I also don’t have any particular praise for the candidate that would make me feel inclined to vote for them.
In the primaries I had a choice; democrats were running against each other for County Executive and President of County Council. And I did read up on the candidates, I googled them, and read all I could on their thoughts on issues like county land use and zoning. For the past year I haven’t been happy with what I’ve been reading in the local newspaper about corruption at the county level. I made an informed decision in the primary and voted for who I thought would be best. The people I voted for however, didn’t win. And so the dilemma continues.
There’s nothing I find horribly objectionable about the people running. It’s just that I’m not excited about them. Part of me wants to just say "then don’t push the button next to their names." But that would make me feel like I didn’t vote at all for the office. I mean, sure, it’s a little slap in the face for the results to come out that X number of people voted and you only received ½ X number of votes for your unopposed office. But I don’t even have a reason why I feel like I should want to take that little slap out on them.
And so, even as I write this and try to sort through my thoughts, I’m still torn. I don’t feel like these candidates have done anything in particular to deserve my approval by voting for them. But I also don’t think that they’ve done anything to deserve my little slap by not voting for them.
I’m interested to hear how others are dealing with this dilemma since I still haven’t reached a conclusion.
(Follow up posted here: http://www.dailykos.com/...)