Vote happy

Dan Gwadosky is a nice man, a good citizen and a first-rate secretary of state. We wish him well in all his endeavors; we just hope he’s dead wrong in his projection for today’s voter turnout.

Twenty-five percent. A mere one-fourth of the 936,487 eligible Mainers. It sounds pathetic because it is.

True, there are no famous names on the ballot; no one’s running for governor, Congress or (except for the Rumford/Mexico district) the Legislature. But there are six questions on the ballot, three important questions on forestry, the turnpike and voting rights, three to approve bonds for transportation, environmental protection, safety and access improvements at the State House and University of Maine campuses. Then there are city and town councilors and school board members to elect, local issues to be decided.

Such matters, while not about to change the world, are too important to be left in the hands of that one-in-four with a few minutes to spare. No pep talks about the Founding Fathers, about those who fought and died, about oppressed peoples throughout the world should be necessary. Maine lawmakers have made it remarkably easy to vote — right down to same-day registration — but they can’t be expected to drive you to the polls.

Maine is a national leader in voter turnout, consistently placing in the top five, it was first in 1990, 1992 and again in 1996. But it’s victory by forfeit: 65 percent in presidential elections, 52 percent in gubernatorial is nothing to get cocky about.

It’s Maine’s performance in off-year elections that is puzzling. Votes held the year before a presidential election draw around 40 percent; those held the year after, like this year, average just 25 percent. The only rational explanation is civic laziness — voters are not still recuperating from that grueling 10 minutes spent at the town office a year ago. It is inconceivable that the 1979 effort to scrap the bottle bill or the 1983 drive to repeal the moose hunt would outdraw the six questions on today’s ballot, but it’s likely to happen.

Turnout projections are based upon several factors — past election data, new registrations, absentee voting activity — and have proven to be quite accurate. Gwadosky hopes that’s not the case, he’d like to see a turnout two or three times his prediction. “Nothing would make me happier than to be proven wrong,” he says. Even secretaries of state deserve to be happy.