What’s really surprising about the election, and rather upsetting to me, is how few people in Fountain Hills vote.

According to U.S. Census estimates for 2017, there are 11,410 households with 21,363 residents age 18 and over (8,186 who are 65 and over) in Fountain Hills. From the vote tallies, it appears as if about 8,300 actually voted. This is more than usual for Fountain Hills but still falls far short of the number of apparently eligible residents.

Registering to vote, signing up for an early ballot, marking up one or two a year and handing them to the postman takes up about an hour of time per year. Not bothering to learn about candidates and not voting puts all of us on a path to a diminished democracy. Are non-voters just lazy or just don’t care?

It seems like it’s kind of telling about what’s going on in Fountain Hills. There apparently are a lot of people who just don’t care about the town or what’s going on in it or with it, and that’s very sad. It explains – to a degree, at least – why so many politicians and people in government think they can do whatever they like and get away with it.