Mike Brossart: November 2009 Archives

Montclair City Councilman Bill Ruh reported his light-turnout experience in an e-mail to Joe Blackstock, Daily Bulletin assistant city editor.

Councilman Ruh went to his Montclair polling place at 7:30, half an hour after the polls opened, yet was the first voter to show up there.

"How sad that more people had not yet taken advantage of the privilege of voting," Ruh noted. Electing members of the Chaffey Community College Distrist's board was the only item on his ballot, but "... the future of education in our valley is important," Ruh wrote. "How I wish more people would take this seriously."

For November's presidential election, I arrived at my Upland polling place about 10 minutes before it opened and lined up behind 50 voters waiting to mark their ballots.

This morning, I arrived about 10 minutes after the polls opened and was the very first voter. It was a kick being the voter asked to look inside the ballot box and verify that it was empty, but it was disappointing to see how few people bother with a local election. The only thing on my ballot was choosing two members of the Chaffey Community College District Governing Board.

That's actually quite important, in my view. Half the people you talk to around here attended Chaffey College at one time or another, and a good number of our offspring will get their educations there. I should think people would want to make sure that the college, which trains a sizable portion of the Inland Valley work force, has competent leadership.

-- Mike Brossart