Only 15 percent of the population chose the candidates for Snohomish County executive: About 8 percent chose Dave Somers and 7 percent chose John Lovick. That is a pitiful number of voters.
We live in a country founded on the principles of a representative republic, in which it was thought that the electorate would always be involved in the way their government worked, as well as who would represent them in that government from the local level all the way to the national level. And, the first thing a voter gets to decide among the candidates running — who will even be on the ballot in the general election. It is with that first decision that everything else takes a distant second, third or last place, so wouldn’t that be the most important decision?
Well, apparently not. Only about 95,725 voters out of a possible 420,529 voters actually took that decision to heart and cast a ballot for who they wanted on the ballot for the general election.
Do you feel comfortable with such a small number of people deciding the “first decision” for you? It is certainly not the result of a truly “representative republic!” Most of the citizens will have nothing to complain about since they have largely abdicated their responsibility as a citizen!
Besides running for office yourself, voting is the one thing you can do to participate in your government and the people entrusted to run it for you. So, please vote!
Catherine Paxton
Arlington
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