There’s nothing quite like it unless it’s school board elections. You get a ballot in the mail for your neighborhood board, open it, look at the candidates, realize you know none of them, and then agonize for a little while as to which of these people should represent you on this most local of all democratic institutions. You read their one or two sentence biographies and if you’re like me, you mentally flip coins.
This time I had two choices for one at-large seat and six choices for four sub-district seats.
I’ll give Honolulu credit, though. Each Board has a website where you can find both past and future agendas and minutes, and you can vote online for these unpaid seats.
I am perplexed about elections in my city (Scranton).
It seems to be a lot of work to be an informed voter at the city level.
And we have the political cronyism issues befitting an even smaller hamlet.
When I’ve read the city council meeting minutes, they invoked scenes from Midsomer Murders, though less flowery in language, and, granted, with a lower body count.
I’m certainly glad to know there are few (fewe?) bodies (bodyes?) on the floor after city council meetings! 😉