Sorry, Mr. Spitzer: it sounds like Aberdeen wants to be more like Minnesota.
Yesterday’s referendum in Aberdeen on issuing $7.7 million in bonds to build a new public library drew 60.46% approval from the voters. Blogger Ken Santema breaks down the numbers by polling place and early vote:
| Polling Place | Yes | No | Yes% | No% |
| East | 471 | 300 | 61.09% | 38.91% |
| Courthouse | 642 | 403 | 61.44% | 38.56% |
| West | 330 | 218 | 60.22% | 39.78% |
| Early | 967 | 655 | 59.62% | 40.38% |
| Total | 2410 | 1576 | 60.46% | 39.54% |
2,365 people came to the polls yesterday on top of 1,621 who voted early at the courthouse. Yesterday’s voters weren’t affected by the weather much: we had a little fog and slickeriness throughout the day, but the big snow didn’t start falling until about the time the polls closed. Early voters made up a whopping 40.67% of the total. For perspective, the nationwide early-voting rate in the 2012 general election was 14%.
Voters aren’t assigned specific polling places, so the vote totals from each station don’t necessarily reflect geographical samples of voters sentiment. But every polling place and the early vote had nearly the same 60–40 split in favor of the library.
Library bond opponent Santema commends both sides on good get-out-the-vote efforts. Turnout was about 25%, which beats the pants off the abysmal 3.5% who turned out on a nice sunny June day to vote in this year’s Aberdeen school board election and is a snudge better than the national average local election turnout in the low 20’s… but come on, fellow practitioners and beneficiaries of democracy! Three quarters of you let one quarter of us make the decisions? A new library gets built because 15% of voters say Yes, 10% say No, and 75% say Meh? I suppose I could take your trust in your fellow citizen as a compliment, but remember, neighbors: every time you choose not to vote, you’re letting me make a decision for you.
Construction on the new library should begin next year. I look forward to walking there with my daughter and reading by the big windows in all that natural light.
p.s.: Ken Santema says watching the Aberdeen vote count come in was more fun than watching the Republican Presidential debate.
I was shocked by the turnout, honestly. I figured we’d get another 3% turnout again.
Congratulations to the “City Without Limits” or the “Hub City”! Progress and moving forward just like Mitchell with their new indoor pool facility!
Wow, talk about similar voting percentages at all locations and times.
Great choice, Aberdeen.
Mrs. Nelson, I’m certainly glad the turnout was higher than last summer’s, but it’s a small victory. I’d have liked more people to make their voices heard.
I wonder how representative of the population this 25% sample is. If we were talking a random sample, there’d be no doubt the percentages reflected the popular will. This 25% is a self-selecting sample, the people who care enough to vote, and I get the impression that both sides were equally motivated. Would anyone like to speculate on a possible skew from the general will among the motivated voters?
I can’t speculate on that but I know a lot of folks who didn’t vote because of the constant back-and-forth between the two sides. They didn’t know what numbers to trust anymore (new vs renovate) and were not impressed by how personal the bickering became at some points.
It was a pretty much straight 50/50 from people I know who did vote.
I thought a 25% turnout was pretty dang good for a single-issue municipal election. Yes, in a perfect world more people would take an interest. But both sides had some great GOTV efforts that maybe they can use next year.
Yesterday I was predicting it would be within recount range, mostly because it seemed people I talked to were half/half for and against.
I do think Mrs Nelson has a point about some people refusing to vote after not knowing what to believe anymore.
Mitchell might be the only worse town in South Dakota than Aberdeen in which to live. Maybe.
Mobridge pretty much sucks. Okay, Pierre sucks worse than Mitchell. Wait. Winner sucks worse than Pierre or Mitchell.
Milbank is a hole too now that I think about it.
Good for Aberdeen.
Well, Sisseton sucks, too so does Murdo.
Brookings is horrible, though.
Wall is probably better than Buffalo but not by much. Box Elder is probably better than jail.
Larry Who Resides in New Mexico,
For someone who always says everything sucks about South Dakota you spend morning, day and night on this blog. Is life that miserable in the Land of Enchantment? What about spending time with your wife number what now 8 or 9?
Onida is probably better than Eureka or Gettysburg but that’ talk reach.
Huron is ghastly. So is Philip.
Yay Aberdeen!
13.9% of eligible voters voted yes and 9.1% voted no for a total of 23% voter turnout. Lets say another 2% of the eligible voters could not make it to the polls because of weather. That leaves 75% still not voting. How do we change that?
A buddy called me tonight. He is a drafter and estimator at a lumber yard. They hosted their annual holiday open house and year end discount day. They serve up various chilly recipes with all the toppings, along with a vast array of holiday sweet treats. As usually, even with today’s winter weather, people came from miles away for free food. He says 1/2 of their holiday guests come from over 40 miles away.
Is it time we start enticing people to register and vote? How about if your over 18 and want to obtain a drivers license or hunting license, you have to be registered to vote? If you actually do vote you get a voucher or credit as we all know people seem to be enticed by anything free.
It makes me mad that yesterday such a small percentage of people can actually dictate the spending of $12 million taxpayer dollars.
Now, Faith, Dupree, Lemmon? Sitting Bull was clearly a saint.
Ken,
I was in there a few years ago and it just seemed so packed inside that library as if they had run out of room. Some distant relatives donated some civil war era Harpers Review books years ago to that library and hope they were not damaged in the flooded or high humidity basement. The basement had their archives there many years ago so I don’t know what happened since.
Mitchell just finished remodeling their library with adding on plus making much brighter inside and energy efficient and it is a very nice facility. So much better than the dark 70’s era brick inside.
Harpers Weekly*
Mitchell is a bunker, for sure. Howz the weather there tonight, Sibby?
Belle Fourche is beautiful in May but every other month sucks.
Lead’s best month is October but that’s pretty much it. Custer sucks all year ’round. Hermosa is a dirge.
Aberdeen in June is quite beautiful then the tornadoes, mosquitoes and blizzards make the other times suitable only for christians who pray for survival.
Cory,
I see your crazy sidekick has the night shift here eh?
US12 is a killing field for economic refugees all the way to Missoula.
You literally can’t pay people to fly into Pierre.
I guess it’s possible that people who choose to bear crosses usually do.
It’s 70 in Key West les miserables.
Enjoy your kuchen.
Since the new Aberdeen Library will be built at a different site from the current library, what will become of the old facility?
I would imagine it being sold to another owner who could remodel the building and fix the humidity and flooding problems in the basement. It could be used for office space or who knows what as it’s still rather usable once all the various building issues are fixed.
Speaking of Winner, our library is inside someone’s old house. It’s a very nice library indeed. Before it moved into it’s current location, it was inside the Tripp County Courthouse.
Mrs. Nelson, I’m puzzled: how can people back away from an issue just because two sides are arguing vigorously about it? Even if people don’t like “bickering,” don’t they still want to have a say in the final decision? How do we present vigorous debate without turning people off of participating in the decision?
Wade, you ask a million-dollar question. My daughter thinks the current library location would be a great spot for a Walgreen’s. I agree that 6th and Kline is an excellent location for a business. I haven’t heard any plans for the site yet, but the city should try to get top dollar for it.
Wade, you mention using the building as office space. I wonder if the space would be suitable for anything else. With the parking lot, the building can handle a fair number of customers… but then maybe the lot could host another building on the north side.
Ken, on turnout, I’m glad a quarter of us showed up, but as Elisa Sand points out in today’s paper, the Northern Beef Packers TIF vote in 2007 drew 43% turnout from the county. Interesting that the beef plant TIF would draw a higher percentage of voters than the controversial library.
Ken’s comment connects with Mrs. Nelson’s noting that people choose not to vote when they don’t know whom to believe. That agnosticism is dangerous to democracy. So what do we do to get people to overcome that information uncertainty and pick a side? How does one side establish the kind of authority that will pull those agnostics off the fence? Or does that authority have to come from a third party?
(Neighbors, I apologize for Larry’s outbursts. He has trouble contributing positively and relevantly to our discussion of local issues.)
Scott, holiday treats for voters? Holy cow, aren’t “I Voted!” stickers enough? :-)
I do agree that we should do as much as possible to make it easier for people to vote. The significant early-voting turnout shows that making the ballot available weeks before election day is useful. Hey, what’s that Rep. Shawn Bordeaux is saying about helping Indians vote with more polling places? I think I have another blog post to write….
Cory,
(Neighbors, I apologize for Larry’s outbursts. He has trouble contributing positively and relevantly to our discussion of local issues.)
Really? Try all issues. This is about the only site he has not been permanently banned from.
How is that weather in Aberdeen today, neighbors?
[Get back on topic, Lynn and Larry. We can discuss editorial policy by e-mail.]
When my sister Lynn and i would act up my mom would send us to the weeping willow tree to cut switches for our floggings.
I was on topic numerous times and then your crazy sidekick would go off on his rants.
I am not Cory’s sidekick: i am his library.
Cory as I read into the passing of the new library by the majority vote of the folks in Aberdeen, I always wonder how in the world they got into voting for the packing plant.
That’s an interesting comparison, Jerry. Mayor Levsen has always supported the beef plant, just as he supports the new library. In 2007, the beef plant sounded like a real job creator. We didn’t have the EB-5 track record of corruption and collapse yet; the only big EB-5 project was the Veblen dairies, and they were still chugging along with too little scrutiny.
Did the library need 60% super majority to pass, or would a simple majority have done it?
Referendum, Steve, so straight majority, 50% + 1.
There was a HUGE amount of “I don’t care either way” amidst the people, too. Which, yeah, is sad and kinda scary, that kind of voter antipathy is what dooms us to bad representation in the State Leg and in DC.
Mrs. Nelson, I can imagine some folks saying, “My taxes aren’t going up, I don’t use the library, so why bother?” Can you think of any issues that would motivate more people to get up and vote in the Legislative election?