OPINION & EDITORIAL
With April showers come voting powers
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Also by Badger Herald Editorial Board:
- Vote 'yes' on Frankenstein veto (March 31, 2008)
- A fool's errand (March 27, 2008)
- It's not me, it's you (March 25, 2008)
- Pro-choices (March 14, 2008)
- License to ill (March 13, 2008)
Related Stories:
- Democracy in action (April 4, 2006)
- Unnatural selection (January 21, 2008)
- Vote 'yes' on Frankenstein veto (March 31, 2008)
- Dane's not dead, so pay attention (February 6, 2008)
- Frankenstein veto lives on (February 28, 2007)
by Badger Herald Editorial Board
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Once again it’s Election Day, and once again, we urge you in the strongest terms possible to exercise your democratic right and get out to the polls. But don’t stop reading here, because with the twin debacles of the District 5 Dane County Board and state Supreme Court races, things are a little different today.
Excising the “Frankenstein veto,” which currently allows the governor to stitch together unrelated words and numbers in budgetary legislation, is a worthy and sufficient reason to vote. But we cannot endorse anyone for the contested races on the rest of the District 5 ballot.
In the County Board race, this is simply because both Wyndham Manning and Conor O’Hagan have yet to prove they are fit for office. Between Mr. O’Hagan’s frankly alarming “Economic Development Plan” and Mr. Manning’s inability to reason out much beyond an arts and lake-cleanup program, District 5 deserves better in a time when the County Board is trying to sell voters on a $200 million Regional Transit Authority.
It is not the qualifications of the state Supreme Court candidates that give us pause, but the retread of last year’s mudslinging between interest groups over Justice Annette Ziegler and opponent Linda Clifford. To endorse either Burnett County Judge Michael Gableman or incumbent Justice Louis Butler would be to implicitly endorse a judicial selection process that by its very nature cannot engender substantive debate. Justices should be held to their experience and recommendation of their peers, not elected on a trumped-up ideological bent.
In elections without a national race to pique the average citizen’s interest, voter turnout usually plummets, which is why it’s all the more essential to make your voice heard. Sure, cliches like “every vote counts” lose their potency when they’re trotted out every few months, but far better that than the caveats this election has forced upon this board. While most students’ ballots will have three contested items on it, we cannot in good conscience encourage anything but a “yes” vote on the Frankenstein referendum.
Anonymous (April 1, 2008 @ 2:42am):
vote jason smathers for district 5 sup: GET THINGS DONE.
Anonymous (April 1, 2008 @ 6:50am):
There are students who live outside District 5, you know.
Anonymous (April 1, 2008 @ 8:19am):
I'm sorry this is off-topic, but that editorial cartoon was ridiculous.
Anonymous (April 1, 2008 @ 2:25pm):
Nice cheesy cop-out on the Supreme Court race.
Anonymous (April 2, 2008 @ 12:57pm):
i never understood the point of the write in campaign for jason smathers. if he can "GET THINGS DONE," then why didn't he get on the ballot? don't complain about the two candidates if you can't put the effort in to actually play by the rules and get on the ballot.
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