No excuse for not voting
It&8217;s not as if people couldn&8217;t see the signs.
No, seriously, they were everywhere &8212; signs for Tommy Edwards all around Calera, for Jonathan Spann in North Shelby and a pretty huge billboard for Corley Ellis in Columbiana.
The day before Election Day sandwich board signs reminded motorists to &8220;VOTE HERE.&8221; Even on June 3 people we all worked with and ate lunch with sported stickers proclaiming &8220;I voted.&8221;
All the county could muster up though was a measly 10,000 voters or so. Just a few hundred more could have meant the difference in all four contested races, not to mention the District 2 and 8 races now headed for a runoff.
What keeps voters so indifferent? This particular election might have actually been one where each voter&8217;s ballot truly would count.
For example, right up until the last hour of results flooding into the Shelby County Courthouse, Anne Glass sat poised to face Rick Shepherd in a runoff.
In the last few minutes, though, it was Jonathan Spann who brought in 293 votes giving him the second place over Glass with her 230 votes. A margin of just 63 votes changed everything.
It&8217;s possible that the candidates for the Republican primary aren&8217;t fundamentally very different, but what if they were, and you get stuck with a commissioner that doesn&8217;t adequately represent your views?
The Shelby County Commission controls a lot more of the decisions that affect local residents&8217; daily lives. The commisison makes choices about subdivision regulations, road improvements, and budgets for departments like the Sheriff&8217;s Office.
How can this not be important to local voters? It could mean less deputies, poorly maintained roads or an unbalanced budget.
Elizabeth Owens Whitfield
Funeral service for Elizabeth Owens Whitfield, age 28, of Shelby, was at 11 a.m., Tuesday, June 10, 2008, at Bolton-Letlow... read more