I think voters bear most of the responsibility for ensuring their vote gets counted on Election Day.
Note that I said, “most of the responsibility.” Election reform is a lightning-rod issue this year, with debates and legislative-reform proposals popping up across the country ― from Arizona to Texas to Georgia to Florida. People want change and legislators, to varying degrees, are intent on making it.
But let’s get honest: Voting,for most people, is a two-day-a-year activity barring special elections. That means the average voter has 363 days a year to, a.) read and understand local voting laws and election procedures; b.) register to vote; and c.) make a voting plan addressing these basic questions: When will I vote? Where will I vote? Will I vote early, by mail, or in person?
I’m going to crawl out on a limb here and declare that many people spend more time scrolling social media in search of inane drivel than they do researching and planning how they will cast a ballot as participants in a democracy.
Those last five words are the ones voting-reform proponents seize on when they clamor for election-law and voting-procedures overhauls. They argue that some election procedures deny people the right to participate in democracy.
Proponents throw around the word “disenfranchise” to describe this denial. Read my first sentence again — I said election systems bear some of the responsibility for voter disenfranchisement — but I have no sympathy for two voters who walked into Lynn City Hall on preliminary election night five minutes after the polls closed and asked where they could vote.
I also have no sympathy for sore losers. I admire Lynn attorney and School Committeeman Michael Satterwhite for the way he conducted his mayoral campaign and for his passion and perseverance. But I take exception with the approach Satterwhite took to filing for a recount after he received 2,286 votes in the unofficial preliminary election balloting.
Let me state emphatically, based on 36 years spent reporting local news, including elections: Satterwhite had no shot at overcoming the 307-vote gap that separated his vote total from City Council President and mayoral candidate Darren Cyr’s total.
For perspective’s sake, allow me to point out that the late Edward J. “Chip” Clancy Jr. needed to overcome a 30-vote deficit in 2009 to hold onto the mayorship. He was unsuccessful.
Satterwhite did a disservice to his stature as an elected official by offering this quotation to summarize his decision to seek a recount: “We should not be disenfranchising registered voters in Lynn.”
Satterwhite’s words, in my view, opened the door for other critics (Bob Connolly, Item, Sept. 25) to unfairly question the professionalism of Lynn City Clerk Janet Rowe and her coworkers.
Rowe rejected Satterwhite’s recount request in a detailed letter that must have left Satterwhite embarrassed about both his decision to seek a recount and the lack of preparation he brought to the task.
I hope Satterwhite for the remainder of the election season focuses his passion for helping fellow Lynn residents on encouraging people to register to vote. The last day and hour to register to vote in the Nov. 2 election is Oct. 13 at 8 p.m. in the city election office ― room 203 in City Hall.
I hope Connolly and other election critics will consider volunteering for a 14-hour day as a poll worker before they level their next barrage of criticism. Most of all, I hope fellow Lynn residents will get informed about local election procedures and take the simple steps required to vote in the final election.
