November 5, 2013 Election Day

Many comments could be written about election day through the past 200 years. Where to eat election night dinner has long been a topic of discussion with various organizations trying to bring in as many people as they can. For those community minded folks who work at the elections, food was not an issue. More likely it was how not to over eat from all the wonderful foods brought in by people.

Eating is only one topic for Election day, voter turnout is another. Presidential Elections bring out a lot of people. State races, either with the presidential races or in the off years, also see a lot of voters at the poles.

If you were to look at the old voting books, some voters regularly arrived at the poll at the same time, as noted by their number. Lower numbers were the early risers, or those heading home from the overnight shift. Higher numbers were those who voted in the evening. Some would bring their children to learn about voting.

Local elections, for supervisor, justice of the peace, town clerk and other offices were recorded in the Town Minute books. Over the past 60 years or so, those notations became fewer, and then missing completely. For many of the elections where there were few candidates in the local races, and no other draw, the turnout would be quite low. The election inspectors would be left wondering if they would even see 15-20% of the eligible voters

Throughout the late summer and into the fall of 2013, everyone knew there was a local election. This time, there were candidates running, strong feelings on issues being expressed, and a large voter turnout expected.

The ads in the local paper, and received in the mail, told of the points of view of the candidates and their experience in community service.

As the evening wore down and the votes were totaled, the results told the story of that day.

Two men were running for the position of Town Supervisor. Barry Ford, running primarily on the Democrat line had a total of 359 votes. Mike Reynolds, incumbent, running on the Republican, Conservative and Independent lines had 503 votes.

There were two councilman seats open. Two long term incumbents, Gary Hunt and Duane Waid were being challenged by Meg Jastran and Jeff Ashbrand. There were 868 ballots cast, with the instruction to vote for two. Duane Waid received 499 votes, Gary Hunt had 497, Meg Jastran 367 and Jeff Ashbrand 357. Again, the voters had spoken for experience.

Dewitt’s Diary Wednesday, November 5, 1952

Strong south wind, mild.

Everything went Republican. Eisenhower won by a landslide of 6 million votes. Over 50 million voted. The greatest number ever.

It is about time we had a change in Washington, D.C.

Temperature 50 today.

We finished picking corn this morning. Putting it into the crib.