Vote count incomplete

The Amherst Public Library's 1.17-mill bond issue failed in the Tuesday, Feb. 2 special election by a whopping 15,194 votes, notwithstanding the unofficial vote tallies listed by the Lorain County board of elections.

According to the vote count on the night of the special election, Issue 1 lost with 809 people voting for the bond issue, 933 voting against the issue, and 15,070 people voting to let someone else decide.

Of 16,812 registered voters in the library district, a little more than 10 percent of them came out to vote. In a country founded on the premise that citizens should have a voice in their government, this is unacceptable.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt -- who knew a thing or two about elections -- once said, "Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves, and the only way they could do that is by not voting."

Even when voter turnout is high, elections are frequently decided by narrow margins. The presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 are excellent examples.

In 2000, George W. Bush won the state of Florida by 537 votes, a margin of 0.0092 percent. In fact, four other states in that election were decided by margins of less than one half of 1 percent, and in a challenge of Florida's results, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to uphold the results.

In 2004, Ohio's election results were not known until the morning after the election, and they were contested in Congress when the state's Electoral College results were challenged. Only Wisconsin had a margin of less than one half of 1 percent, but two other states, Iowa and New Mexico, were decided by less than 1 percent of the vote.

Library director Robin Wood bemoaned the results, saying the library project was crafted, and the bond issue was sought, according to what the public said they wanted in the library. She can take heart in knowing the public likely still wants it, but almost 90 percent of them wouldn't say one way or the other at the polls.

For this reason, we would suggest the library board might want to try again in May or November. Special elections, whether in February or in August, traditionally have low voter turnout, so more voters might turn out for the regular primary or general elections.