Saturday is Election Day, a fact you’ll be reminded of several times if you read this week’s edition of the Enterprise. From our page one election coverage to our featured columnist Fred Gray to a reader’s letter to the ads from several local politicians, it is hard to miss the fact that local voters have a job to do this weekend.
An impressive number of people have already stepped up to the plate and done their civic duty. As of Tuesday morning, 284 people had early voted in the City of Clarendon election, 309 had early voted for the Clarendon school board, and 42 had early voted in Howardwick. The early turnout this year has outpaced total turnout two years ago. In 2011, about 55 Howardwick citizens voted total, 233 Clarendon voters cast ballots, and about 250 people voted for school board. Last year, there wasn’t even enough interest to hold an election for those boards.
Interest is high in Hedley also, where 36 people had early voted for school board by Tuesday morning. School officials say early voting usually amounts to about seven or eight people.
It is a great thing to see people getting involved, but it is also important to see candidates involved in the process. Certainly, they are involved just by being on the ballot, but it is nice when we see participation beyond just campaigning and specifically participation through attendance at meetings. The incumbents in each race are familiar with the issues facing their respective boards, but challengers can only attain that knowledge by coming to meetings and learning firsthand how a board functions and the topics before it.
Howardwick has had good participation at a town hall meeting and a meet-the-candidates forum, and we applaud the way citizens in that community have rallied to work together.
In Hedley, there was high interest immediately after Coach Darrell Wallace was not given a new contract. But in the numerous meetings since then, the Enterprise has only seen one challenging candidate in attendance. That candidate was Lana Ritchie, and she is to be commended for coming and learning first hand what’s going on.
Likewise at the Clarendon ISD board meetings, there has only been one challenging candidate who we have seen at board meetings. CISD has a lot on its plate right now, facing a budget deficit and declining enrollment and now a June election asking taxpayers to pony up more money. Linda Rowland deserves recognition for taking the time to come to a couple of board meetings to educate herself on the issues.
The City of Clarendon has also been the center of attention lately, and numerous citizens have made the time to attend the meetings of the Board of Aldermen. Two of the three non-incumbents running for the board have been among those truly interested citizens – Sandy Skelton and Janice Knorpp.
Again, the incumbents know the issues, and it is a great thing to have new candidates run for office. It is a better thing when those new candidates are fully informed and ready to serve on day one should they be elected.
We have tried our level best to keep you up to date on the issues surrounding our cities and schools, and Enterprise representatives have put in extra time covering board meetings lately – doing our job, reporting on what’s happening when we could be home with our loved ones playing Yahtzee. We’ve done our part, the candidates have filled their roles, and now we leave it in the hands of the people. Go vote.
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