The Sheriff Won

More than a thousand people last Tuesday refused to vote for sheriff, nearly 10% of the Democratic voters.

I can tell you it wasn’t easy not to vote for him. The easiest thing to do was vote party line, which at least 6,800 might have done.

For various reasons the Republican candidate for governor drew more votes than usual. The Democratic gubernatorial candidate attracted 1,500 fewer votes than the man running for the Congressional district who got more than 8,300 votes.

If one split one’s ticket, it was easiest to vote for offices that mattered, the ones with two candidates, and skip the ones like sheriff with only a single candidate. Many skip the oddly worded judicial votes (do you favor keeping so and so in office) which are not part of the party line option.

To vote against the sheriff one had to stand at the card board podium and tediously ink in the circle for every other unopposed candidate, no matter how trivial sounding the post. That was the only way a voter could register a protest in the disparity in the final vote tallies.

Members of the sheriff’s department have found other methods. At least two have already left since the primary to work for the city police. In October, the outgoing sheriff recommended promoting a number of his allies within the department, a move approved by one of the new sheriff’s rivals just before the election. Other deputies are threatening to sue.

The elections may be over, but the legitimacy of the sheriff isn’t settled.

Unofficial results
Congressman - 11,404 votes cast - 8,369 D and 3,035 R
Governor - 11,510 votes cast - 6,822 D and 4,688 R
Sheriff - 7,267 votes cast, 1,102 less than the most popular D, 445 more than least popular D