Thursday 9 April 2009

Democracy is a wonderful thing

From the comments section at TVHE I came across the following quote
The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.
and then at Homepaddock I came across a link to an article about a dead man being re-elected mayor of his town (by the average voter?)
Voters in the small north-eastern Missouri town of Winfield have re-elected their mayor for a fourth term, about a month after his death.

Ballots had already been printed and absentee voting had already begun when Harry Stonebraker died of a heart attack at age 69 on March 11. He won easily in the general election with 206 votes, or 90 percent. Alderman Bernie Panther got the other 23 votes.
I'm sure there is a message in all of this somewhere. And what does it tell us about voter ignorance. I mean, not knowing the candidate is dead is taking ignorance to an extreme. On the other hand, what does it say if voters did know he was dead and voted for him anyway?!

3 comments:

Nigel Kearney said...

A cynical person might suggest it would be even more ignorant to believe a living mayor would do a better job than a dead one.

Paul Walker said...

Fair point Nigel. I often think the best politician is a dead politician.

Brad Taylor said...

Well known people become more respected once they die. If voting is purely about expressing how you feel about the candidates, this is exactly what we should expect. Record sales are boosted by the artist's death, why not electoral success?