Ignorant electorate

With the election essentially over and the major decisions made with popular mandate, it seems like I wouldn't be able to complain about our election and voting anymore. But, is a little thing like that going to stop me? No! I think I still got one more column about voting in me.\nTake, for instance, the apparent ignorance and stupidity possessed by some Monroe County voters. In the race for Monroe County Community School Corporation school board, four seats were open. Each voter, who lives in the MCCSC area, was able to pick one candidate from each of four open districts. \nBecause of some controversy with sixth district candidate Lindsay Boyd prior to election, he withdrew, but was still on the ballot. I would think that the fact that Boyd had opted to file a notice of withdrawal would signify to voters that they should not vote for him. But, apparently, my advanced sense of logic isn't shared by most citizens who voted in that race. Maybe some of the voters consciously voted for Boyd. Nonetheless, he received 721 more votes than Sabo-Skelton. Go figure!\nAnother thing that made me a little perturbed about the happenings at Monroe County polling places Tuesday is the difference in total votes for some of the non-presidential offices. There were 50,243 votes for president in our county. By comparison: 49,092 votes for the U.S. Senate race and 49,535 for the gubernatorial race. There were differences in total numbers for other races, too. The discrepancies are small, but my point is that with some 51,500 votes cast in our south-central Indiana county, some people voted for one office but not for another.\nWhile some people might commend this, I absolutely do not. A few of my friends told me that people shouldn't vote for an office if they know nothing about the candidate or candidates running for it. I agree. But, if you went to the polls with information about only a few races and not ALL of them, then you weren't completing your civic duty. \nFurthermore, if you went into the booth and voted a straight ticket by pushing the Republican, Democrat or Libertarian button, then you didn't vote for all the offices. First of all, not all races had candidates from all three parties. For instance, the race in Indiana House district 61 had no Republican candidate. \nAlso, there were of course the non-partisan school board races and the three general questions listed on the ballot. If you voted straight ticket, you didn't vote for these things either.\nI spoke to a friend of mine Tuesday who told me he voted a straight Republican ticket and didn't vote for the general questions on the ballot. He said he saw them, but didn't have an opinion and therefore didn't make a choice.\nHis sense of responsibility in the booth was somewhat commendable as he didn't make a decision for something about which he had no background information. But, the fact that he didn't develop an opinion beforehand was not at all admirable. He should have spent time finding information about all candidates listed on the ballot.\nFor the last couple weeks before the election, I started to look into the smaller races so that I could make an informed decision. In addition to reading information in newspapers and on candidates' Web sites, I actually attended a school board forum to find information about that race. \nI am not saying that I am better than those of you who didn't do some of the things I did. However, I do feel that I took a more active role in my civic responsibility. Everyone needs to do the research to find information for all candidates for all offices. A little time consuming? Maybe. But, it's our responsibility.\nAll offices -- big and small -- have some effect on our lives. Keep that in mind next time.