Readers’ comments: July 28, 2023

Special election is a sign of the times

Dear editor:

I read Sonja Stump’s letter [Readers’ Comments, July 21] revealing her frustration with the elements of the recent school board special election. Ms. Stump’s description of the time and expenses wasted for the satisfaction of disgruntled election losers in our community disturbed me. So, I visited the Condit School polls.

What I found were very bored volunteers waiting for the next walk-in voter. They were welcoming to me, but obviously disappointed when I told them I had voted by mail. So I thanked them for their service and asked them for their comments regarding the time and trouble which to them and to me seemed a pretty big waste of time. Those who spoke up agreed with Ms. Stump.

Ms. Stump wrote, “My guess is some of the good folks who signed the special election petition weren’t aware of its consequences.” That would be my guess as well, flavored with the opinion that the cost of a special election and the waste of resources, human and other, wasn’t a concern of those who signed because they were on the losing side of the 2022 election. They simply saw this as an opportunity to “get back at the deep state” and hope that their candidate won this go-around.

As Ms. Stump wrote, “I look at this school and see classrooms where teachers have lists of needed supplies and books, a shortfall due to lack of funds.” I ask, couldn’t the $270,000 plus have been spent on our children’s education, rather than wasted for the satisfaction of a minority of election losers? When we refuse to lose, when we reject election results, we weaken our democracy. Most of us care about that. Others, I’m not so sure.

Pamela Hawkes

Claremont