I just got a reminder from my friends at the Tea Party – tomorrow is Primary, and if you haven’t mailed your “absentee ballot,” you’ll have to turn it in a polling station or at the clerk’s office in Oroville.
An article in the May 28 Oroville Mercury Register reports that only 19 percent of more than 74,000 ballots have been returned. Wow, 74,000 voters registered absentee – but don’t get their ballots in?
I’ll admit, this was a depressing election, we really didn’t have much to vote about. I will admit, I “undervoted” – I didn’t fill in bubbles for every candidate, I can’t just hold my nose and vote for anybody. But I did vote against Candace Grubbs and a couple of other long-time ass-planters, just to let them know I’m not happy with the job they’ve been doing.
For one thing, Grubbs, who enjoys a good salary and a hefty budget for her department, could send out a reminder a couple of weeks out, tell those people, MAIL IT NOW! She sends a reminder at some point in March, telling us to be looking for our ballots in May, so I don’t know why she can’t send out the same little postcards in mid-May, reminding absentee voters that the deadline is coming up.
Another thing I got a gripe about is the little mechanism she has on her website to see if your absentee ballot had been received and is “good” isn’t working this year. I’ve used it twice in past, and I think it’s important – what if I find out, they never received my ballot? If the post office is as good at delivering these ballots as they are at delivering my Christmas packages, I’d say, about 40 percent of those mailed in have been lost/destroyed.
I’ll have to give the clerk’s office a jingle today, because if they haven’t received my ballot, I might just go down there and fill out a new one. I might have to ask Old Candy to pay for my gas, see what color her face turns.
I predict voter turnout this primary is going to be a new record low.
Chico Taxpayers Association 