The Matanuska-Susitna Borough held its off-year election for the three borough assembly seat that were up for grabs. That’s three-sevenths of the seven total assembly members. And a bond issue totaling $38 million, adding to the $208 million in existing debt.
A total of 9.53% of the registered voters in the Borough turned out to vote. Not even ten percent. For nearly half of the assembly seats.
It’s not like it’s hard to vote in the Mat-Su Borough. There’s early voting, absentee voting and in-person voting at 40 different precincts. It doesn’t take very long. Bog knows Mat-Su Borough has challenges and problems facing it that voters ought to be worried about.
As the late Tulsa Ross told WC back in junior high, our government doesn’t ask for a lot of our time: jury duty and taking time to vote. That’s it. For 95% of Mat-Su voters, that’s still too much, apparently.
Theresa Thompson is the Chair of the Mat-Su Borough Canvass Board, the folks that count the ballots. And count them they do; hand count them. WC is unclear why Mat-Su has abandoned machine ballot counting, which has repeatedly been proven to be more accurate, far faster and much more secure. It’s hardly the first time that Mat-Su has taken a step backwards.
Ms. Thompson had one reported comment that is so at odds with how things generally operate in Wasilla that it bears reporting. After the Borough Assembly had certified the election results, she said,
We can and must work together in an atmosphere of courtesy, respect, backed in civility. Perhaps there has never been a more important time for neighbors all around the world to stand together for the common good of one another.
WC fears that whole-hearted sentiment, which is nothing less than Bog’s own truth, fell on deaf ears. But maybe WC is being too hard on Wasilla. Maybe the town that gave us Sarah Palin, Mike Dunleavy, David Eastman and Alaska’s only alligator refuge will come around to Ms. Thompson’s plaint. It could happen. It’s not likely, but it’s possible.
But that fine sentiment doesn’t change WC’s advice to Wasillians and other voters in the Mat-Su Borough: get off your lazy asses and vote. It’s your responsibility.
Wickersham's Conscience 
I don’t know when I began reading your musings on this blog. It must’ve been later than November, 2019 however. While telling us of the recent sub-10% voter turnout in Wasilla you linked to a 4 year old post about Tulsa Ross and Jim Growden, the Kennedy assassination and the Good Friday earthquake. Well, that link was actually about how you failed to show empathy as a seventh grader, assigning it to the “Epic Fail” category, which you even admit would be a reach for any seventh grader. Regardless, I don’t know if I awakened this morning in a particularly fragile state of mind, or if the coffee hadn’t kicked in yet, but reading “The Times Tulsa Ross Cried” brought me to tears. That’s the thing about Wickersham’s Conscience . . . Belly laughs one day, tears the next. Keep up the wonderful writing, Jim. Thank you.
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Tulsa Ross did her best to inculcate me in the nuances of U.S. History in my eighth grade year. However, my only memories include learning the Preamble and her tossing a Lysol can at Tommy J., thankfully not Tommy R., and nailing him in the shin. She was a character when Fairbanks had fun characters not idiot characters like now. BTW: Tommy J. was talking when he should have been listening. Tom R.
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I read the Tulsa Ross link after my previous comment. I am positive I was in Mrs. Ross’ class in 8th grade and I believe I am two years behind WC. My high school graduation date is 1971. So she didn’t retire as speculated. Tom R.
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Three years younger, Tom. WC had some interesting conversations with Ross’s family after the post went up; they think she finally retired in 1972, and worked as a substitute teacher off and on for a few years after that.
/WC
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Mrs. Ross had son about your age. He was in a school play where he played a bull, in costume, and was to be stabbed by the toreador. Mr. Ross wore a piece of plywood on his back, under the costume, where the stabbing was to take place. The toreador missed and stabbed young Mr. Ross in the back. He stayed in character! Toughness must of been a family trait.
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This is not really a comment as much as it is a suggestion for W.C. Wasilla has a lot of notoriety, but you need to take a look at Kenai Peninsula invocation controversy. There’s been a five year plus run of people fighting over who gets to give the invocation at the council meetings. it’s even achieved national attention because of a Satanist that came and gave an invocation praising Satan, of course we had and invocation from a Rastafarian praising his noodleage, the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The wonderful people running the assembly have lost tons of money in lawsuits which they lost. They refuse to listen to the superior court judge or any other reasonable person. The superior powers all seem to say you can’t do what you’re doing and guess what the Kenai assembly is doing it again, prohibiting certain religions from providing the invocation. A rational leader would just have a moment of silence, and say we’re not having an invocation even if it’s just because we spent so much money in lawsuits But an insane person keeps doing the same thing and expecting different results. Kenai assembly seems to be drinking the same water as Wasilla.
Bob Day Homer Alaska ________________________________
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