In each of his successive mayoral races, fewer total voters came out to the polls, (20,000 fewer voters each time, in fact, a startling statistic). Jackson’s famous dearth of charisma, and a subservient city council, likely have much to do with precipitating this unprecedented voter apathy.
When he was first elected in 2005, beating out incumbent Jane Campbell, 99,000 people cast their votes. (This was a steep decline from 2001, when 110,000 voters participated in electing Campbell over Raymond Pierce).
But in 2009, when Jackson defeated Bill Patmon, only 79,000 people voted for Mayor. In 2013, when Jackson defeated Ken Lanci, only 59,000 people voted. That’s less than 25 percent turnout for a mayoral election in a major American city, a disgrace.
Voters can buck this ugly trend today. Remember: It’s not your fault that you’ve been discouraged and disenfranchised. As of 1:13 p.m., according to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, 33,795 Clevelanders had voted in the election, which includes the mayoral contest between Jackson and City Councilman Zack Reed. Cleveland is home to 262,052 eligible voters, which puts the current turnout just under 13 percent.
So if you haven’t yet voted, get out there and do it. And if you don’t know your polling location, you can look it up here.
This article appears in Nov 1-7, 2017.
Sad. There are several layers of blame. First, Frank no action Jackson, aka mush mouth has brought very little to be pleased with. If you really listened during his campaign, he mushed around the pathetic Cleveland school performance. He mushed up about the piss poor customer service at the water department. He mushed around the promotions of the folks in the police department after the 138 bullets fired and killing 2 innocent people. Overall, if you under performed and really messed up, you got promoted .He brought forward the so called lack of legislative success of Zach. He forgot to mention that it’s the council president that determines what legislation is brought to the floor for a vote. He did find time to bring to the surface regarding the poor judgement regarding Mr. Reed’s drinking. Frank failed to mention that in August he brought into the city an abusive domestic abuser, proving that his judgement is just a pathetic.
With regards to Reed, his effort and heart is in the right place, he just did not have enough money to buy the election in comparison to Franks’ money. Reed didn’t have a private fund raiser in the glitzy high end burbs like Frank. Keep this in mind. With money comes promises.
Sadly it appears Cleve will have 4-more lack luster piss poor city services with a person one can barley understand because he speaks with mush in his mouth. In his own words, it is what it is.