Thursday, May 06, 2004
Voter turnout fairly low in Tuesday's elections
The exception was in Blacksburg, which had its highest turnout in more than 15 years.
Voter turnout in the New River Valley was similar to past municipal elections in most towns Tuesday, with the exception of Montgomery County. A lack of issues led to low turnout in Christiansburg, and the hotly contested Blacksburg race saw the town's highest turnout for a May election in more than 15 years.
Christiansburg had the lowest percentage of registered voters come out to the polls since 1990. The four town council candidates ran civil, friendly campaigns and had few differences of opinion.
"Somehow the people of Christiansburg need to watch what happens here," said Mary Houska, president of the Montgomery County League of Women Voters. "Perhaps they are very pleased with how Christiansburg is growing. But if they are not and they'd like to shape things, then they have to become more active."
Houska said she didn't know how to energize voters in Christiansburg. The league went to schools and businesses in the county as part of a registration drive this winter and will continue its efforts for the November election. It also held a sparsely attended candidates forum in Christiansburg.
The league set a goal in March to get between 25 and 30 percent of registered voters in the two towns to come out and vote. While the Christiansburg election didn't come close, the emotional Blacksburg election fell just short of the goal and broke a streak of five May elections in which a higher percentage of Christiansburg voters came out to vote.
In Blacksburg, 537 more voters came out this year than in 2002.
Blacksburg's sewer debate defined the six candidates running for three spots on council. After write-in candidates Frances Parsons and Toby Rock announced their candidacies, the field was evenly divided between those for and against plans for a conventional sewer to run through the Toms Creek Basin. The sewer issue led to the formation of Citizens First, a group that opposed the sewer plan and said it organized a voting bloc of about 1,400. It resulted in a clean sweep for candidates supported by the citizens group.
"All of the people who got out there and called people to vote, it really empowered them and that's marvelous," Houska said. "So many people think whatever is going to happen is going to happen."
In Radford, about 27 percent of those actively registered voted for the two council seats and two school board positions up for grabs Tuesday. The turnout was lower than Radford's 2002 municipal election, which included a hotly contested race for mayor, two council seats and three school board seats. About 31 percent of registered voters came out for that election.
"This time we didn't really have any burning issues, the two incumbents on city council weren't running, so I think folks didn't pay a lot of attention to this race," Radford Voter Registrar Tracy Howard said.
But four years ago when the same seats were up for grabs, 24 percent of voters turned out. Howard expects about 80 percent of the electorate to come out for this November's presidential election.
"I wish people would pay more attention to local races because it affects their everyday lives more than the presidential race," he said. "The speed limit on Wadsworth affects you a whole lot more directly than some foreign policy made by the president."
Giles County Voter Registrar Donna Altizer was equally frustrated with the turnout for the county's three contested elections.
"I would like to think that all the towns have enough activities going on that there should be plenty of issues," she said. "There just seems to be a spiral downward of folks not going out to vote these days."
While Altizer was disappointed with the turnout, Rich Creek's 20 percent participation rate was typical for a contested municipal election and Pearisburg, which had its first contested town election in eight years, had an above-average turnout. Narrows voter participation was 10 percent lower than 2002 and 20 percent lower than 2000, when the mayoral race was contested, unlike this year.
Pulaski's voter participation has held steady over the last three municipal elections, hovering around 20 percent.
Looking ahead to November, Carl McDaniels of the Montgomery County League of Women Voters said the league is still shooting for a turnout of 75 percent for the presidential election. He was disappointed not only with the turnout in Christiansburg, but also in Blacksburg. He said he expected such a controversial election to bring out more people.
"The interest in local government turnout is still nowhere close to what it should be," he said.
