City Hall Blog: When did 20 percent voter turnout become OK?

That’s my opinion, anyway.

Some people would tell you otherwise — that primaries historically have low turnouts, so cheer, why don’t you, when more than 20 percent of registered voters show up to cast ballots.

And that did happen in three of the four council primaries.

District 4 topped the list with 22.9 percent of registered voters participating. District 1 was next with 22.1 percent, followed by District 7 with 20.3 percent.

But is that what we have come to: 1 in 5 eligible voters casts a ballot and we celebrate democracy at work?

Look at it this way: Blake Ewing, the top vote-getter of the day among city councilors, received 4,299 votes. Although that was more than 70 percent of the votes cast in the race, it represents only 16.8 percent of the district’s registered voters.

District 1 City Councilor Jack Henderson and District 2 City Councilor Jeannie Cue were each re-elected with less than 3,000 votes. Neither candidate was able to wrangle more than 13.5 percent of registered voters’ support.

Even Anna America, who can rightfully hold her head high today after finishing first in the District 7 primary, received only 2,078 votes. That represents exactly 9 percent of registered voters in that district.

Are you kidding me?

This is not a knock on the candidates.

It’s a knock on us.