Montgomery County Voters Rank First in Apathy

By Sonny Goldreich

In a primary election marked by low voter turnout statewide, Montgomery County distinguished itself by caring the least.

Only 102,263 out of 630,254 eligible county voters bothered to participate in yesterday's poll, which effectively decided our next county executive and council, governor and who we will send to the General Assembly and Congress, given Democrats' overwhelmingly advantage in party registration.

That's a voter turnout rate of 16.23 percent, the lowest in the state.

Maryland Board of Elections

The county that should be the junkyard dog of state politics showed one more time that it's a pocket poodle that can be carried around and played with like a toy.

I won't even go into the fact that Montgomery voters overwhelmingly spurned two home-grown gubernatorial candidates in favor of Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, a former Prince George's County delegate. Everyone has their reasons for choosing a candidate.

But in an election characterized by a hotly contested county executive race and open council and State House seats, fewer than one out of six of Montgomery County's voters showed up yesterday or during eight days of early voting that ended Thursday.

You want to know how pathetic that is? Baltimore County reported a higher turnout, with 105,088 citizens voting, even though Montgomery County has 47.9 percent more eligible voters. That's a rate of 24.67 percent of voters who performed their most basic duty. Baltimore County's turnout rate beat Montgomery by 52 percent.

I should note that from its lofty perch where it sees little on the ground in Maryland, the Washington Post editorialized on election day that the primary vote should be moved back to September to improve turnout. The date was changed to "comply with a new federal law making it easier for overseas service members to vote. The law requires that absentee ballots be mailed 45 days in advance of federal elections in November; officials said a September date didn’t provide enough time." But it seems that June is a month for vacations and such, when folks (like WPost editors?)  have no time to vote or pay attention to the hundreds of campaign flyers and email clogging their mailboxes.

The problem is that the WPost argument doesn't pass the numbers test. State election results show that the primary turnout has been dismal in Maryland, and especially in Montgomery, no matter when it is held.

For the 2010 gubernatorial primary held in September, Montgomery County had a 20 percent voter turnout rate, compared to 25.4 percent statewide. For the 2012 presidential primary staged in April, MoCo turned out 15.8 percent, compared to 18.8 percent statewide.

What we have here is a bunch of lazy saps, especially in Montgomery County, with its huge population of professionally politically engaged types like federal workers, congressional staff, lobbyists, association officials, union activists, random lawyers and fundraisers and assorted other percentage-takers.

For the 102,263 Montgomery County residents who voted this time, you can pat yourselves on the backs for caring who represents you.

For the 527,991 losers who are eligible to vote but wouldn't get off their asses, you can go to hell, because you have affirmed the contempt Annapolis holds for Montgomery County.

So, no more whining when the General Assembly screws us once again at budget time and cheats us of desperately needed funding to operate our overcrowded schools or to build new ones.

Your complaints about high taxes and Montgomery County's function as the state ATM will be ignored.

Nobody in Annapolis will care about our overwhelmed subway and road systems.

Montgomery County had the opportunity to show Annapolis that we're pissed off about getting pissed on and instead most voters pissed away the chance.

You didn't vote. So you don't count.