democracy inaction?

Today was the local school district board election/budget approval vote. I was vaguely aware that it was approaching -- the Ithaca Times (our weekly free newspaper) ran a cover story on that subject last week -- but I never got a card telling me to mark the date. In fact, I only got the explanatory budget mailing yesterday! Dear ICSD, your organizational skills need work.

There were three slots open on the board, and the only three people running were the three incumbents whose terms just ran out. :-/ Last election there were a bunch of new candidates and some actual campaigning and competition. This year's lack of options is just sad. I wish some of the candidates who narrowly lost the last time had run again, partly because they seemed like reasonable candidates, and partly so the results wouldn't have been foreordained. Ithaca is very much a one-party town and while consensus is nice, the lack of variety is not good for governance in the long term.

I approved the budget and filled out a little exit survey on which I complained about the tardiness of the explanatory mailing. I doubt that will have much effect, but at least I said something. :-/

(School district votes always have the most appallingly dismal turnout rates. That is one reason I feel very strongly about participating in them! And one nice side effect of our reduced hours at the smoke shop is that now I can vote after work instead of having to start my shift twenty minutes late -- the school district voting time period is 12-9pm, you see, which has historically tended to exactly overlap my work shifts.)