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Christiansburg Citizens Move the Vote. Your voices were heard!

04 Nov

On November 3, 2009, the Washington Post ran an article entitled “More local races joining November’s big tickets, by James Hohmann. Although the source is not cited, there was one paragraph about the Christiansburg referendum:

“In Christiansburg, six miles from Blacksburg, many voters are expected to oppose a ballot proposal that would move their elections from May to November. Fairfax and Prince William counties’ registrars said there’s no widespread support for a switch in their jurisdictions.”

At the end of the day, Christiansburg voters did have their say. Nearly 90% of voters supported moving the town elections to November.

I was pretty sure that there was enough citizen interest to move the vote based upon the number of citizens that I have communicated with over the last several months. However, I never dreamed the results would be such a landslide.

The results of the referendum and other local elections were delayed when the Registrar’s Office started putting the first votes into the spreadsheet provided by the state and some of the numbers did not look right. It seems that the total voting population of the County was being used in those ballot issues set for Blacksburg and Christiansburg only. It took a while for the Registrar’s Office to get with the state and have the spreadsheet corrected but the totals presented on the State Board of Elections website today are correct.

My thanks to the Registrar’s Office for catching the problem and getting it fixed before a lot of erroneous numbers got published, creating chaos.

I would also like to thank all of the candidates (win, lose, or draw) for being willing to tackle the tough issues and being a source of information for voters.

Finally, my thanks to the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County for setting new standards for providing citizens with information through their forums and website (lwvmcva.org). If you want to be involved in voter education, voting rights, local/state/national issues, membership with the League of Women Voters is open to all. Thanks to those people who contributed to the League of Women Voters and made it possible to produce all of the printed materials. For more information on joining the LWV’s or making a donation, go to: League of Women Voters of Montgomery County Virginia.

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Posted by on November 4, 2009 in Citizen Participation, VOTE, Your Tax Money

 

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MOVE THE VOTE! Charter update required, a good opportunity to fix some problem areas!

03 Oct

One benefit of moving the Town of Christiansburg, Virginia elections from May to November is that it will require an update to the Town Charter. This provides town government with a great opportunity to update some other things as well.

For example, in the Town Council Meeting Minutes for 2003 the following can be found from the November 4, 2003 Minutes’s Town Manager Report Section:

MANAGER TERPENNY asked for Council approval to ask Delegate Nutter to sponsor a Charter amendment allowing Town purchases to follow State Code guidelines. He explained that Town Charter has never been changed egarding Town purchases and is currently way below public procurement laws. Currently, Town Charter requires bidding for purchases over three thousand dollars ($3,000.00); State law requires bidding for purchases over fifty thousand dollars ($50,000.00). Councilman Barber made a motion to allow Manager Terpenny to proceed with the request for sponsorship of a Charter amendment allowing Town purchases to follow State Code guidelines, which was seconded by Councilwoman Carter. Council voted as follows: AYES: Ashworth, Ballengee, Barber, Carter, Lester, and Weaver. NAYS: None.

Unfortunately, we are now almost 6 years after this issue was reported to Town Council and Town Council voted to approve the Charter change and no such change has occurred. I did check the Legislative Information System data for changes in Charter throughout the State and this change did not appear in list of passed, failed, or in any pending/committee lists. Unless, of course, some reason was found to indicate State officials did not think this was a good idea. (No evidence of that was found either.)

In other words, it appears that a problem was identified, a solution was found, and the ball was dropped. No further reports were documented in the Meeting Minutes to indicate if Del. Nutter had been contacted or not. One would have to assume, based upon any lack of updates to this, that it was at the Town level that communications fell apart.

If the referendum to move the vote is passed, the Town will need to update the Town Charter to reflect the new date and starting dates for candidates. This would be a good time to make an effort to go through the Town Charter looking for other issues that should be addressed and making sure that all needed updates are made. I certainly hope that the town would not plan on take 6 or more years to update the Charter for the new election date.

If the referendum fails, maybe it is still a good time to look at fixing issues that were identified 6 years ago! Either way, there needs to be some method for making sure that things are followed through on after they are presented to and voted upon by Council. Believe me, there are plenty of other such “ball dropping” events filed throughout the Minutes. But, don’t take my word for it, look for yourself …. at least until I finish my report:)

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Posted by on October 3, 2009 in VOTE, Your Tax Money

 

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MOVE THE VOTE! Voters in Christiansburg, VA faces a choice in November

29 Sep

Why in the world would people want to move Town of Christiansburg elections from May to November? Well, there is the argument that it could cause greater citizen participation in selecting government officials. Some argue that this would cost them the opportunity to stand around and visit with candidates before they vote (I personally think a Town picnic in May would be a great way for existing and potential elected officials to meet with a lot more citizens. It isn’t very likely that anyone going to vote is going to change their minds because they stopped on their way into the polls to talk about things.)

However, across the State of Virginia and across the Nation, there is a trend to move those May elections to November for the sole purpose of saving taxpayer money! I have included here a lot of links to relevant newspaper articles discussing this topic. Proposed savings to tax payers range from $3,500 to $75,000 in the costs of elections. An additional issue that is discussed in many of these is that past election costs will not be the same as future election costs due to the amount of money that has been reduced from State Budgets. When State money is cut, your local jurisdictions will have to pick up the price tag. Look for future May elections to set records in cost. In Christiansburg, this will be further compounded as rapid growth has now given us the population counts that will make it mandatory to have 2 polling places in the future rather than just one. (Wonder how those people who argue that they won’t get to see and talk with their favorite candidates will deal with that? It’s not like candidates can be two places at once. Maybe candidates can schedule which of the polling places they will be at and people can sell existing homes and buy new ones in those areas if necessary. Kinda makes the May Town picnic look even better to me.)

Any way, here is what is happening across Virginia and the US concerning moving of voting dates to November from May and why it is being done:

Those are just a few of the many such sites that I found. Feel free to look further:)

What I find most ironic is that at the recent WSLS Town Hall meeting, the Mayor, Richard “Dick” Ballengee, (see I remember his name even if he usually addresses me as “that lady”), pointed out that the reason a referendum to change the Christiansburg vote was so that citizens/voters would make the choice, rather than have it changed for them like Blacksburg. You’ll note that many of these articles above refer to a little used process in the Town of Christiansburg. Public Hearings about big issues like $15+ million Aquatic Centers, where issues are presented to the public and a series of public meetings are held for input from citizens to be obtained. Had the Town of Christiansburg been supporting the move, that is how it would have been handled. If they had wanted citizens to know about the real cost of the Aquatic Center, this is what they would have done. Just exactly what issues do current council members feel are important enough to elicit public input? Might make a good question for future candidate forums.

Coming soon will be exerts from all town meeting and candidate forums that were recorded where the issue of moving the voting date are discussed. Citizens need to know all the facts in order to make decisions that are right for them.

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Posted by on September 29, 2009 in VOTE, Your Tax Money

 

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Some Christiansburg Voting Facts. Maybe this will inspire people in other areas to GO VOTE!

25 Sep

Thanks to the Registrar’s Office for this information being on their website. Elected officials are the ones who are making or are responsible for the individuals making decisions that affect your life in many ways (traffic, taxes, stormwater, development, economic development, water, sewer, garbage, fees, recreational facilities, Aquatic Centers, sidewalks, walkways, trails, and even filling those blasted potholes).

Did you know that:

  • In 1998, 11% (1,007) of the possible voters in the Town of Christiansburg determined who was elected to public office in the town.
  • In 2000, 12% (1,225) of the possible voters in the Town of Christiansburg determined who was elected to public office in the town.
  • In 2002, 21% (2,279) of the possible voters in the Town of Christiansburg determined who was elected to public office in the town.
  • In 2004, 8% (971) of the possible voters in the Town of Christiansburg determined who was elected to public office in the town.
  • In 2006, 11% (1,398) of the possible voters in the Town of Christiansburg determined who was elected to public office in the town.
  • In 2008, 11% (1,527) of the possible voters in the Town of Christiansburg determined who was elected to public office in the town.

In 1998, 2002, and 2006, the office of Mayor was up for grabs. Only the 2002 election spurred a larger turn out than the 2008 election for Christiansburg. In 2010, the office of Mayor will again be up for grabs. If whatever it was that spurred on such turnout in 2008 happens again, we may have another record breaker.

For now though, think about these numbers as a reminder that whether it is local, state, or national, each election has the strong potential for a minority to dictate the dance for the majority. The only way to make a difference is to register to vote and then VOTE! For voter information including where to register, where to vote, who’s running, etc. The League of Women Voters of Montgomery County and the Montgomery County Registrar supply information.

Don’t forget that Christiansburg residents will get a chance to choose whether to keep election in May or move them to November to be combined with other elections saving your tax dollars. However many citizens show up and vote, those are the ones who will determine the outcome of the referendum.

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Posted by on September 25, 2009 in VOTE, Your Tax Money

 

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