Voter turnout does not a blue county make. While disappointing for the rightly red County of Knox, it was the increase in voter turnout by Democrats not a change in the counties overall political ideology. Republicans stayed home on November 6th in the 8 precincts identified in the Knoxville (cough) “News” Sentinel this week, as turning Knoxville blue “slowly”. A closer inspection of the election results would have provided a clearer picture of the fact that more than 1700 fewer Republicans voted in those 8 districts and 800 more Democrats scurried to the polls this time than did in the presidential cycle two years ago. Fortunately there are 89 precincts in the county. Unfortunately 44 of those are saddled with being taxed by the “non-partisan” Democrat controlled city. Perhaps the headline should have been, “Republicans participate in elections at a higher rate in presidential cycles.” An even better headline would be “All elections matter.” The cold hard fact is that Knox County’s State house delegation lost a hard working dedicated public servant because of a lack of participation by voters. While much excitement was created in the media about the increase in voting numbers this cycle, it would have been a significantly different tone had the turnout increased on both sides of the isle. It is important that we participate in every election. If we do not keep a constant watchful eye we may wake up one day and realize our local elected officials have no understanding of the true function of government. Electing people because they promise to give us more stuff will destroy our ability to self-govern.

Randy Pace, Here to Volunteer.