why do you think so few people vote then
why do i think so few people vote i
i think a lot of it is uh apathy um um
for example uh when things are going good i think the voter turnout is less just because people
figure why bother you know what's the difference especially when two candidates seem roughly equal
um and in others cases you know they they see themselves as one voter in a million and they think what difference is it going to make whether i vote or not they they feel like one vote doesn't have an impact
um-hum
and i think a lot of cases like a lot of our
minority issues the we had the ten four one verses the fourteen one election here in Dallas a while back
and it lost well that was decided by a very small margin
um and there were a lot of of minorities that wanted it to go
the way that it didn't go
but they also had very low voter turnouts especially like in the Hispanic community
and i think in that case they've just they developed a distrust of the system
and so they've chosen not to participate in it
um-hum
and i think that's part of it
what part what part would you say the big brother aspect plays the people that don't want to be called for
what do you think
jury duty or or things that they've heard that says you know well they use this registration for this purpose or that so they just don't bother
oh
i've i've heard people say that i know it's it's a real thing and i think it makes a difference
as to how many people vote apparently not being a citizen not not serving on jury duty is important enough to them that they don't want to have any say
in uh politics
hum
okay and then what about the smaller election say some of the city elections uh even down to the uh school board type uh elections i guess there are so many
that you can uh weed out the ones that you really want to partake in
yeah
yeah
well
last November was my first election in Dallas i've only lived in Dallas a little over a year
and i went down this long list of judges that i was voting for
and
i mean i didn't know anything about any of these races i didn't know what the responsibilities of the judges were i didn't know anything about the individuals who's names were on the ballet
and i'm going you know how can i possibly make an informed choice here
um-hum
so what's the point in voting for these people i i mean it you know i get just as good of results as if i through darts at a board
right
well it's a shame that uh that even the politician who wants to give give out good information about himself
uh has trouble in virtually everything he does say that's positive or or even mediocre gets attacked from the other side
such that he spends more of his time defending than he can putting forth any decent information
uh and then once you get off the candidate's personal information then you want to get into an actual issue and then how the candidate feels about that
um-hum
there's there's very little room for or very little time to handle all the different things you'd like to know about a candidate and then unfortunately after you do get some of that information you may find out it weren't true to begin with so
yeah you you think then that uh part of it is because the uh it flashes too much on the personal uh characteristics of the candidate rather than his uh
job performance issues
i would say that it's much easier to deal with the the the public the uh media that's that's giving the information to the public is much easier to deal with uh any personality quirk or any negatives that they've found or any skeleton in the closet
um-hum
than to try and first educate the public to the point where they can
listen to either side of a given issue
yeah
uh and it's pretty difficult to deal with some of the issues lets say that Texas uh Texas State uh Railroad Commission has to solve when you don't even fathom what the implications are of they're decision so who would you care who got in that position you know
i'd i'd say
yeah i'd say there's a large number especially of urban young voters that don't know what the Railroad Commission does
right
and so they go you know who who who what does it matter who i vote for
right
i think well that's one thing i've noticed i've i've lived a couple of different places i've noticed Texas seems to have more elective offices than any place i've ever been
so hence more apathy i guess or confusion
well a lot more confusion you know i in in other towns i've never called upon to decide all this long list of judges i've never been called upon to decide
you know we're we're voting for Railroad commissioner and and uh Land commissioner and that sort of thing and in other state these would be appointments of the governor
um-hum
we wouldn't be expected to cast a ballet on the subject
hum boy that makes the governor's vote a whole lot more important doesn't it
well it does
yeah a lot more appointee's i guess makes him carry a lot more weight
um-hum
but it also means you've got a unified state government you don't have different departments pulling against each other
that's probably well worth it then it probably be worth it just to do away with the cost of the elections and uh put it in the hands of maybe one man who can at least get his party together
yeah
yeah
so hum
the the the big problem i guess with the the mass media is you know
uh you don't have time to educate the public on these matters because the public is not going to sit still and soak the message in
um-hum
i mean anything that can't be covered in thirty seconds or less they're not going to care about it
right
or or if you can't dramatize it and put it on Unsolved Mysteries then they're not going to you know they're not going to want to hear it
do you find it convenient to vote the actual time of day type where you have to go and the line you have to stand in
uh the the line what i waited maybe ten minutes in line
it was it was uh a minor inconvenience it was certainly
worth it to me i think
did you go early in the morning or
i went right after work so that was when the line is the longest
after work
hum that's interesting
well where in my little district fortunately it is literally across the street i could walk over there as it were we live across from the school and so we
uh-huh
i drive out of my complex early in the morning and go over there usually before the polls even open and and vote right at the you know number one or two sometimes the third or fourth person in in line
um-hum
and i wait longer to to watch them set up than i do actually in the in the line itself but that gets me out of there at a time that i can go down Central and not be bothered by the the traffic as it were
yeah
because normally i'm i'm at work before seven so uh just stay a little later that as it were and and make the the effort to vote
uh but unfortunately since there are so many other things that uh our city wants to vote on
hum
they don't they they tend to make the elections if it's a not important election as it were they only open a few of the poles
so i don't always i don't always vote at the same place so it's a little bit more trouble for me to well this election's going to be held this date and i've got to go over here
so you have to go a little out of your way huh
yeah
yeah
and i've got to remember uh you know on this election i'm in this district in this election i'm for here and uh you know this precinct votes here
um-hum
and i would just assume in holding still and all vote in the same place as many times as they want
yeah
yeah i would also like better
information on
on what on you know what am i voting on and and who just some general statements about the candidates i guess this is the kind of thing you expect from the newspapers
um-hum
and i didn't see much of it
like you know i see you saw a lot about the major races but a lot of the minor ones that you're being called upon to decide there's very little information on
um-hum
as far as you know what what is the duties of this political office and uh and what are the characteristics or what what are the
issued statements and
uh spoken goals of the uh candidates
right
i'd like to get
probably wouldn't even hurt to have a section that says here's how this particular office affected you or could have affected you over the last several years you know these are the kinds of decisions that this particular judge or this particular
uh Railroad Commission for instance does
yeah
if if you know if he he does do something or you pay attention to this or this is the guy to to blame for this if uh you didn't like what happened
um-hum
you are right there is no uh no such deal other than the small publication that uh
uh League of Women Voters puts out it supplements that newspaper that i get a local newspaper they they published but uh nothing per se in the major newspaper and as hungry as they are for things to print you'd think they'd want to do that
yeah well they the Dallas Morning News did publish a a section that covered the major races and it explained a lot to me about the individual candidates and helped me make a lot of
better informed decisions
but still uh
you know it it left a lot of the the the local races the races unique to my precinct
uh up in the air there is one thing that that did annoy me and that is the the my congressman last fall didn't have anybody running against him so basically i had no choice
um-hum
and i think uh
in some districts you know there's a a party one party or another that has such a lock on it
that uh you know why vote when it's decided already
right
that sort of attitude
that's true
with so many elected officials i guess there's just so many people to go around in some of those cases
yeah
hum well i hear someone calling me so i better let you go
well we used the five minutes up
yeah at least bye
okay
all right bye
