Power of the People

Residents in a Michigan town of approximately 3,200 people yesterday voted to replace every politician that was on the ballot. There is a lot to the story and what was behind the vote, but it reminded me of the power that we have as a community of voters. In Aurora, each ward consists of about 18,000 residents eligible to vote. With a voter turnout between 10-20%, this means that there are about 1,800-3,600 voters in a traditional election cycle. Though the population in Green Charter Township, MI is small, so are the numbers of actual voters in each Ward in Aurora.

I am reminded of the power that we hold over our government and the accountability to the people that elected officials should understand and feel. I vote, but I haven’t really gotten involved to the point of knowing who I am voting for and what each candidate brings to the table or actually does while in office.

I am talking to myself here as much as anyone else. It’s time to start paying attention to our elected officials and holding them accountable for decisions made and things that are going on in our town. I would like to see more articles in the Beacon News that cover local politics with more depth than I see now. It seems to me that they just report the news as given to them without really delving deeper into the decisions made. In the second-largest city in Illinois, do we get in-depth coverage of our local politicians? Maybe you disagree, and I’m certainly open to being wrong. I hope I am. Maybe I’m missing something. But I don’t think so.

So maybe a group, or a reporter, or an individual will step up and fill the void… maybe not. But with what happened in Michigan yesterday, I have a renewed faith in the power of our votes and the power of the people.