EDITORIAL: Non-voters should not complain about the election

With an embarrassing turnout of less than 25 percent of Hall County's registered voters showing up to vote on Tuesday, reason stands that there should be a lot less complaining from the citizens about how their government works. It stands to reason that if a citizen does not respect the democracy enough to vote, they should keep their mouths tightly zipped until they return to the voting booth.

Some residents said the ballots were skimpy and they didn't feel strongly enough about the candidates to warrant a trip to the polls. Tell that to candidates who walked house-to-house to explain their campaign message to voters. Better yet, those who did not vote should explain their choice to a soldier returning from Iraq or Afghanistan. When a nation sends its young men and women off to war, the electorate should have the courage to spend four minutes in the voting booth.

If a foreign nation were to be examining the benefits of democracy and focused an eye on the Nebraska primary held Tuesday, that nation would not find much to recommend democracy as something to treasure. When 75 percent of the voters intentionally elect to avoid their constitutional right,  it does not speak well of the commitment these citizens have in that Constitution. 

Local government certainly did not do much to encourage the voting process Tuesday when the Grand Island City Council and Hall County board both held regularly scheduled meetings. The Hall County board met at 2 p.m. Tuesday in the room that the county election commissioner uses as a staging area to organize the ballots and other equipment for the election. The meeting could have been on another day.

The same could be said for the Grand Island City Council meeting held at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at City Hall. With an hour left before the polls closed, it did not show the integral respect that an elected body should have for the election process. It is a small thing, but it reinforces the idea that voting is important.

The act of voting seems to have lost the respect of the masses and even those in elected office. 

There is plenty of time to correct the meeting schedule for the general election on Nov. 4. Elected officials should choose to honor election day as a day to celebrate our freedom as a nation. It is not a national holiday, but local officials could do more to encourage their constituents to set the remote control down, get out of the recliner and vote.