Just Get Out And Vote

In looking back at the last city election in 2003 only slightly more then 3 in 10 registered voters voted in Fort Wayne's general election. 53,191 voters decided Fort Wayne's future with regards to the elected leaders. What is ironic, nearly 12% of those voting did not even cast a vote for Mayor. Only 47,031 votes where tallied for the Mayor of Fort Wayne race.

This year nine candidates are seeking to fill the three city at-large council seats. The winners could be decided by less then three votes per precinct. In the 2003 election, with only six candidate running, Democrat John Shoaff defeated Republican Tom Friestroffer by 3.6 votes per precinct for the third and final at-large seat.

In the council district races the only one that went down to the wire was Tom Henry against Tom Didier. Didier won the race by 172 votes. This broke down to just over 5.5 votes per precinct the 4th district.

This year the Libertarian Party has offered a slate of seven candidates running for the various council seats. It is unknown if any of their candidates will win. Nevertheless, they may play a key roll into who is elected. While the Libertarian Party offers several quality candidates they suffer from little party funding and no great personal wealth to run a strong campaign. The City's ban on signs will prove to be an additional obstacle in getting their candidates name before the voters of Fort Wayne.

The at-large council seats appears to offer the most exciting race this year. In 2003, John Crawford lead the voting with 19% of the vote. He averaged 142 votes per precinct. Following Crawford was Sam Talarico, Jr., with 134 votes per precinct. The final winner of the at-large seats was John Shoaff. He collected 123 votes per precinct.

The three candidates who lost where, as follows; Rebecca Ravine - 119 votes per precinct, Thomas Freistroffer - 120 votes per precinct, and May Johnson with 99 votes per precinct. There was a total of 43 votes cast for write-ins.

The Libertarian Party could change this year's results even by not winning one seat. By pulling a mere five or six percent of the total vote, could result in changes. The Libertarian Party does have a message that is being heard by some. It will be interesting to see if the message has reached the level of Fort Wayne electing its' first Libertarian.

The race for Mayor will come down to which candidate can get their voters out to vote. The voters will weigh what their personal values are, beliefs in what the media has offered, a reflection on the Harrison Square project, the smoking ban, property taxes, what people perceive as political dirty tricks, and the direction the city is heading. It shall be interesting to see what affect all these issues have.

No voter should consider their vote a wasted vote. A wasted vote is one that is never used!