Council results, and a Ward 4 runoff on Dec 1. Anybody actually going to vote?

Still chewing on Tuesday night. In case you missed it, the Log Cabin has the rundown here. James Whited beat incumbent Spencer Hawks in Ward 3, Ward 2 was about as tight as a race can get, and Ward 4 (Shelia Isby vs Ken Ashley-Pauley) goes to a runoff Dec 1.

I'll be honest, I couldn't tell you much about Whited beyond what showed up in my mailbox and a few yard signs. Maybe that's on me, maybe that's on how these campaigns get run, but I suspect I'm not the only one. Nobody's knocking on doors in this town to talk about sewer capacity.

Because that's what it all comes back to for the next couple of years: water (capacity and what we're paying for it), how fast we keep stacking rooftops out along Dave Ward and everywhere else, and the data center question that people either get very worked up about or shrug at. A council with new faces on it is going to be voting on all of that pretty quick, so I'd like to know who these folks are besides a name on a flyer.

So two things. One, if you know anything real about Isby or Ashley-Pauley, from meetings, from working with them, from just living near them, share it. Facts and firsthand stuff, not Facebook rumors. Two, are you going to bother with the runoff? Dec 1 is the Tuesday right after Thanksgiving weekend. I'd bet turnout looks like a UCA home game in November against a team nobody's heard of. Which means the handful of people who do show up pick the winner, and everyone else gets to complain about it for four years. I say that as someone who will complain either way.

Only Ward 4 folks get a ballot on Dec 1 I think, so it's even fewer people than you'd figure. I'm checking the map before I say whether it's mine, the lines move around enough that I never trust myself.

I don't know either of them well enough to say anything useful. Which is kind of your point. I've been out in Beaverfork a long time and the council races always seemed to be decided by whoever's cousin and church friends turned out. Runoffs are worse, nobody wants to go out the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, with leftovers still in the fridge and the Christmas stuff half up.

I'll go if it's my ward. Someone should at least show up to the meetings and tell us who's who.

Good call on checking the map, Barb. I had to look mine up after the lines got redrawn a while back and it wasn't what I assumed. The county election commission has a lookup that'll tell you in a minute.

Agreed on that Tuesday being rough. I *think* early voting for runoffs is the week before, so you could knock it out while you're already out running errands, but double check that, don't take my word for it.

Only thing I'll add. I get most of my local news standing around the farmers market chatting with folks, and nobody was talking about Ward 4 until the results came in. Kinda says it all.

Take care