While the results of the city council primary race made a few people, including the candidates, scratch their heads, it also underscored the need for people to be as informed as possible when choosing those who are to govern them. The analysis that follows herein is meant to examine the outcome before the canvassing board met last Thursday and the subsequent changes found from those who were early/absentee voters.
Of surprising note was how well several first time candidates performed. Mark Nienhueser surpassed two incumbents, Dalan Hiett and Marvin Filsinger to secure the number two position in voter popularity. Although his vote tally was nearly 150 votes behind Wendall Gaston's 904, he has clearly emerged as an early game-changer in the race for the city's future leadership. Nienhueser's strong showing, in a primary that had higher than historical average turnout bodes well for the Cabela's vice president and presents challenges for both Filsinger and Hiett who hope to sway enough voters in November to return to the council chambers for another four year term.
After the initial vote count from Tuesday evening, perhaps the biggest surprise was Zane Hall's lead over former Sun-Telegraph Editor, Tamara Nelsen. Hall, whose honesty during the candidate forum, should have harmed his chances, instead found a wealth of support in the Sidney 5 precinct, overtaking Nelsen with a groundswell of first-time voters at the last minute. Hall seemed to be just as surprised as people who answered that question in a poll by theguardiannews on Wednesday.
The job of a canvassing board member is not an uncomplicated one. The rules explanation by County Clerk Beth Fiegenschuh after the formal swearing-in process was complete sounds like a VCR programming guide reads. According to the explanation given, there could be as many as 17 different ballots, based on the way voting precincts are drawn, including things such as resource and school districts. The training given to an all volunteer poll worker force did a very good job in making sure the right ballot went to the correct voter.
There were a few small problems on election day. Voters who who had moved or were uncertain as to their registration status, or who were not on the voting rolls when they came to cast their ballot, were instructed to fill out provisional ballots instead. These ballots, which would remain sealed, would later be checked against the official lists of registered voters maintained by the county clerk office staff. According to Fiegenschuh, their were higher than average re-registrations for a different party, and also new, first-time voter registrations. Such activities are atypical for off-year elections, but are easily explained by the large number of city council candidates.
A man and a woman actually had their ballots rejected by the canvassing board due to receiving the wrong ballot. Each was a long-time registered Democrat, but asked for Republican ballots. When the records were examined, the clerk staff found that the woman had been a registered democrat since at least 2000 and the man since 1988. The canvassing board rejected both, citing the requirement in Nebraska that has partisan primary voters to cast their ballots for the party they affiliate with at the time of registration. We do not know what the outcome of of their ballots would have meant to the city council race, which was non-partisan and on every ballot, but their voice was self-silenced through intention, neglect or human error.
The outcome of the provisional ballots added six votes each to Hall and Nelsen. The race would come down to the crucial early and late absentee votes that had come in the previous Friday and Monday before the election. Of those votes, Nelsen needed to pick up just sixteen votes to tie and seventeen to win. Nelson, who proclaimed on her Website that she was cautiously optimistic, given the nature of those who vote early, sat in the hallway at the court house as the votes were opened and stacked into the counting scanner. "I only need 16 votes," she said while making reference to the early vote she cast for herself as being one of those being counted by the canvassing board.
The vote tally came in and Nelsen did indeed pick up the requisite 16 (+1) votes to overtaken Hall's slim lead. It left then to question, could Hall have not done more to invite interest in the constituency he sought to represent, or could he possibly have done more to understand the nature of the issues confronting Sidney. What if one or both of the rejected ballot voters voted for Hall? It truly leaves the question about the responsibility of each and every voter to exercise their duty, not just right, to vote each time they are afforded the opportunity. It also underscores the need to be prepared to confront the issues that affect the office a candidate seeks before election day. Hall's poor showing at the candidate forum may have swayed votes away from the very constituency Nelsen was to benefit from. It is not a negative reflection on Hall's part, but a statement of errors that occur in first-time political office seekers. Hall remains, in my opinion and man of strong convictions, and that he may one day again seek to serve the needs of the people he lives among.
The nature of many new first time voters in an off year election bodes well for the people of the city. The fact that so many candidates, with varying degrees of effort, are now poised to ask you for your vote this November is a testament to the need for the people to act in affirmative ways . Experience counts, but creative problem solving is just as important to some, perhaps more so to others. Name recognition and service to the community have obviously played a part in the results we have seen thus far, but one hopes that name recognition alone will not be the linchpin that the future for so many people turns on this November.
The question now turns on the efforts the surviving candidates achieve in order to encourage voters to either retain the incumbents in the case of Filsinger, Gaston and Hiett, or to create enough support for Nienhueser, Hall and Gallaway to unseat one or more of them this fall. Of the candidates that have moved forward, only Nelsen has a Website and that is tightly controlled by her. Of the candidates who failed to advance, only Tim Hackleman took an active interest in utilizing the internet to both solicit and answer questions.
The manner in which Hackleman allowed this interaction was unabashed and he actively sought many ideas. He also allowed anonymous comments, a very small handful of citizens quite possibly took over his Website to hurl inflammatory statements at citizens and sitting councilman. Several times during the run up to the primary election, Hackleman had to remove comments that attacked people or had nothing to do with his election bid. He had even made a post indicating that the site had become something that was not intended.
Despite the comments that had to be deleted, several questions asked by visitors to his site did ask about issues that were legitimate. One such issue was the nature of business participation by sitting councilman. Based on posts he made in response to questions from constituents, Hackleman said that if he were elected, he would seek an ordinance that would ban council member's participation in city contracts. Theguardiannews was the first and only media outlet to report this item. Despite many comments in that thread, neither the radio station, nor the newspaper reported what would be a significant change in the way the city has done business for decades.
Speaking of the traditional media: How will the people be able to understand the difference between the rhetoric and skewed public questioning provided by the radio station and newspaper, who among the tons of questions received, felt it necessary to ask candidates what they thought about a non-binding restatement of public laws called the code of conduct as one of the five candidate questions needing to be addressed. Is that the burning question in the minds of the Sidney voters? Hardly.
People want to know about jobs and employment diversity, about spending cuts and about a comprehensive city plan that doesn't seek to pay for streets with public eyesores that adversely affect traffic through the downtown business district. People what to know that everything short of tax increases is being done, before "creative revenue" ideas are further explored.
Several former candidates have expressed a desire to help make people aware of the need to vote and to continue serving the public, in whose trust they sought for elective office. Perhaps earlier efforts in September and October leading up to election day this fall will increase the turnout above the dismal one in three. Nearly 4,000 people who could have voted in Cheyenne County didn't do so. In the age of DVR, TIVO and other recording technologies, there is no reason to pass on the ballot box every time the opportunity presents itself.
With less than six months to the general election, it will become increasingly imperative that the voters pin these candidates down as to specifics. Theguardiannews hopes that each voter will take an active interest in the positions each candidate has and that more information about these positions will be forthcoming in the interceding time period. We hope to see each candidate show up at every council meeting between now and then, especially during the run up to the Budget process and to actively participate as citizens in what is probably the most crucial duty city council members perform.
These candidates must earn their opportunity to represent the people of Sidney, Neb., and we suspect that if they can't show up to council meetings, they either must not care, are busier with other matters, or counting on name recognition to carry them through the council chamber doors. You deserve the best candidates to choose from, but if you do not insist on it, they will put little to no additional effort beyond the placement of signs on yards or posters in windows.
For those who took the time to speak your mind at the ballot box, thank you. For the rest of you, do your part as well and vote for your future this November.
Michael Rowland
Publisher
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