Super Tuesday got rained out???

That big day has come and gone once again. Today, May 18th 2010, was the day that every school district on Long Island held its budget vote. Out of the 123 districts, 10 distrcit budgets failed. This amount was an increase from last year, in which only 2 budgets failed. Luckily for our school district, the budget for Middle Country has passed. Considering our district has had a pretty good record concerning our school budget, this doesn't come as a surprise. However, the numbers are. The school board's budget passed 3,125 to 1,512. I think that this result must have something to do with changes in voter participation.

A lot of events occured that could have played a role in the huge amount of support for the budget. For example, the social studies department pulled off a successful get out the vote drive in which many students got the oppurtunity to register to vote. However, that would only account for a small amount of voters , perhaps maybe as few as 50 to 100. There was also a lot of community education sessions that were created to help people understand the difference between a congenial and a school board created budget. Still, this would only create a small amount of supporters.

However, there is one thing that probably deffered a lot of supporters for the congenial budget. I'm not saying this is fact, but my guess is that the heavy rain that occured today kept congenial budget voters from voting today. Here is my reasoning: Most supporters of the congenial budget are in the older age group of about 50/60-90 yrs old. On the other hand, supporters of the school board budget usually lie in the age group that is younger than 60. Rain can work as a huge obstacle to older citizens compared to younger citizens mainly because of transportation difficulties. Older drivers have trouble driving because of their declined sense of balance and awareness. Therefore, older folks probably came to vote in smaller amounts, therefore decreasing the amount of congenial budget supports.

Am I saying this thoery is right. Of course not. In fact is does sound very stupid, but whether can play a big role in an election. It is an added obstacle to any election.