That’s roughly the portion of registered voters who turned out Nov. 6 to vote for their representative on the Hanover Board of Supervisors.
Board chairman Robert Setliff makes reference to the low turnout in his letter to the editor in the next column to the right.
Setliff interprets the low turnout as an endorsement of the way things are going in Hanover County, and it’s hard to argue with that conclusion.
Although opponents of the current supervisors who lost can point to some close races, and Coats victory in the Mechanicsville district as indicators of dissatisfaction, one can’t detect a groundswell of outrage from such results.
Seventy percent of registered voters didn’t bother to show up. They’re either so completely turned off and apathetic about the political process at the local level, which affects the quality of life more directly than any other, or they are relatively satisfied with the status quo. Which is it?
