Blass: There’s no excuse for sitting it out on Election Day, especially this year

So are you fed up yet? Enough already with the campaign signs, the mailers, the hit pieces and robo-calls. After all, won’t it be the “same old, same old” — the same mismanagement and broken promises? Come to think of it, the nasty campaigns, the scandal and gridlock, in D.C. and Albany, and right here in our Riverhead, have become both a comedy and a tragedy. We’re worn out not only by the campaigns that end in Riverhead next week, but also the campaign for U.S. president that ends next year.

Everybody has every good reason to be fed up with politics, and being justifiably disinterested about voting in this Tuesday’s elections, right? W R O N G.

Riverhead may be in a mess, but it’s really our mess. Our town is having some tough times. To not vote is to bail out on our community when it really needs us. And voting is truly a way to help out. A good turnout — even better, a great turnout — will be a sobering jolt to the politicians and their power-broker backers. This time, they need to have voting numbers to REspect, rather than the usual apathy that they EXpect. And it goes two ways: the more of us who vote, the more of us will feel we have a stake in the outcome. Just to regain some of that spirit will be a big plus for our community right now.

And consider this:  a strong, renewed interest in voting could actually encourage good people to get involved, to join the Riverhead party committees, maybe even to run for office themselves. Political ambition could be a positive phrase. There’s enormous, varied talent In Riverhead. Let’s strike fire in some hearts, in all age groups.

It’s easy to pass on voting. But it’s a cop-out. It’s they who should back off with the mean-spirited campaigns paid for by so much special interest money.

Let’s take a look at the decreasing voter turnouts in Riverhead, as recorded by the county board of elections in percentages of registered voters who cast ballots for supervisor:

2003 (Cardinale vs. Kozakiewicz) – 46.8 percent
2005 (Cardinale vs. Densieski) – 47.1 percent
2007 (Stark vs. Cardinale) – 43.4 percent
2009 (Walter vs. Cardinale) – 41.2 percent
2011 (Walter vs. Cardinale) – 38.3 percent
2013 (Walter vs. DeVito) – 35.7 percent

In the last 10 years, Riverhead has suffered more than a 10-percent drop in voter turnout. And that’s the turnout among voters who are registered.  Thirty-five percent of all eligible Americans are not even registered to vote.

Maybe it’s these campaigns and poor performance by some office-holders that discourages voter turnout. But consider that poor voter turnout encourages politicians’ poor performance. For many, the choice of candidates this Tuesday may not be the best, but that’s as much our fault as it is theirs. Democracy is not neat. Someone who helped save the world from slavery, Winston Churchill, said it best: “Democracy is the worst form of government in the world, except for all the others.”

So take some time this weekend to catch up on the candidates’ backgrounds. Check out the voter guides on RiverheadLocal and elsewhere, and talk to family and friends who may have thoughts to share, and make sure they vote as well. Give the power elite a scare, give Riverhead a new lease on life, and get to your polling place this Tuesday between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. Find the location of your polling place here  or call the BOE at 631-852-4500.

More than anyone we elect, the town officials up for a vote this Tuesday will have prolonged impact on us and our families — and they appoint others who do as well, including zoning boards, planning boards, department heads, police chiefs, even the tax-break barons on the IDA.

A heavy turnout is a heavy mandate. Just do it — you owe it to yourself and to your town.

Greg Blass has spent his life in public service since he enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a teenager. He has worked in the private sector as an attorney and served six terms representing the the East End in the Suffolk County Legislature, where he was also presiding officer. Greg has worked as an adjunct professor at Suffolk County Community College, as Greenport village attorney, as N.Y. State family court judge and as Suffolk County social services commissioner. Now retired, Greg is active in volunteer work and is a member of the board of directors of several charities. A resident of Jamesport, he and his wife Barbara have two grown children.

Send Greg an email.