ELECTION DAY

I normally enjoy election day. I usually get up at the crack of dawn and am the first in line at my precinct. I enjoy talking with the poll workers as well as the other voters in line with me. I suppose I could take an absentee ballot, but I prefer getting in and out early. It makes me feel like an important part of the electoral process.

I've been voting this way for the past 36 years. I was fortunate to be among the first group of eighteen-year-olds to vote in a presidential election (1972). At the time, my senior class in high school was very excited about getting this privilege and you would be hard pressed to find anyone in my class who didn't register and vote. Since then, I have voted in nine other Presidential elections, as well as numerous other races.

One thing that always amazes me is the low voter turnout in the United States which can probably best be described as "pitiful." We rank 35th in terms of voting turnout with 54% of the eligible voters voting. Actually we're tied with Switzerland who also has a 54% turnout, but many other countries have a much higher turnout than the United States, including France, India, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, even Russia has a higher voter turnout than we do. Canada, our neighbors to the north, has an impressive 76% turnout. Australia is #1 with a 95% turnout, but as I understand it, voting is mandatory in that country.

It bothers me we have such a low voter turnout in this country. No doubt apathy is the cause, but I don't know if making voting mandatory would have a positive impact. We are asked to vote just once every four years in a presidential election. And voting usually takes no more than fifteen minutes to do, not counting possibly parking and waiting in line. Nonetheless, it seems this short amount of time is the very least we can do to voice our opinion in the running of our government.

One thing that bothers me with this particular election though is how we are making our selection which I call a "Negative Election." Usually, we are asked to choose a side and voice our support for the candidate. But the selection process in 2008 is not as black and white as in years past. In fact, this is the first election I've felt that people were voting to keep someone out of office as opposed to voting to put someone into office. In other words, the voters weren't really too happy with either of the candidates and voted to keep the lesser of two evils out. Very strange.

Instead of our current system, wouldn't it be interesting if we voted on the qualifications and characteristics we wanted in a President, along with the policies we wanted that person to implement? Then we could search through a national data base and find the right person to run the government, and it probably wouldn't be one of those clods in Washington, but maybe someone from Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Nah, it would never happen; too logical.

I'm just glad it's finally over and we can now start blaming someone other than President Bush for a whole new litany of problems.

Such is my Pet Peeve of the Week.

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Tim Bryce is the Managing Director of M. Bryce & Associates (MBA) of Palm Harbor, Florida and has over 30 years of experience in the field. He can be reached at timb001@phmainstreet.com

For a listing of Tim's Pet Peeves, click HERE.

Copyright © 2008 by Tim Bryce. All rights reserved.