Low turnout a blemish

While there are 3,243,078 registered voters in Kentucky, less than 20 percent bothered to show up for Tuesday’s primary election. Some democracy. What that means is that if you voted Tuesday, your one vote was more powerful than the combined vote of 2,593,078 other Kentuckians. That’s right, 2,593,078 to one, talk about your longshot payoffs. Wow.

Such low turnout means that four additional candidates could have run in any of the races being voted on Tuesday and each of them could beat the “winner” hands down if we had 100 percent turnout. Pitiful, just pitiful. It’s why our governor (with his 33 percent approval rate) was able to win the election with 16 percent of the registered electorate. Again, pitiful, just pitiful.

So next time you are wondering if your one vote matters, think of it in those terms and you can see that, indeed, it does. Elections have been won or lost by one vote. It could have been your vote, if you had bothered to actually cast it.

This story was originally published May 20, 2016 at 6:33 PM with the headline "Low turnout a blemish."