When fewer than one-tenth of eligible voters made the effort to cast ballots in the Summerland Chamber of Economic Development and Tourism board election, something is wrong.
There are more than 800 businesses which are members of the chamber. While some are non-voting members, the majority are eligible to vote.
Only 58 ballots were cast. Whatever one thinks of the outcome, such a low voter turnout is disappointing.
Summerlanders have not shown enthusiasm at other elections over the past 12 months. The turnout at the municipal election in November was just 36.1 per cent and at the federal election in May, the turnout in this riding was 62.6 per cent. The federal election turnout was a little higher in Okanagan Coquihalla than nationally, but the results still mean nearly two out of every five eligible voters did not bother to vote. In the case of the municipal election, nearly two-thirds did not vote. If they had, we may have seen a different council elected. In the case of the chamber election, fewer than one in 10 of eligible business owners cast ballots. The rest were silent.
How can the chamber speak for the business community if the board does not even know whether it is what its members want? Those who did not vote may have had any number of reasons for stepping outside of the electoral process. Because they did not vote, there is no way of knowing whether they passively supported the outcome of the election, whether they did not care about the outcome, whether they were disappointed with the candidate choices or whether they did not believe in the democratic process.
The declining voter turnout needs to change. Decisions made by elected bodies affect us all. These things matter. And because these decisions matter, your vote matters too.