{"id":5628,"date":"2014-02-19T18:04:07","date_gmt":"2014-02-19T23:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=5628"},"modified":"2014-02-26T15:42:51","modified_gmt":"2014-02-26T20:42:51","slug":"politics-as-usual-and-theyre-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/politics-as-usual-and-theyre-off\/","title":{"rendered":"POLITICS AS USUAL: And they’re off!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well folks, we officially have a horse race.
\nAs of Friday there were 4 candidates registered for the office of Councillor with at least seven of the eight (and perhaps all eight?) incumbents expected to register within the next month or two as well.
\nIf the past three elections are any measure of interest, the number of candidates will probably round out at around 20 by the time the door closes on the registration period.
\nNo acclimations that\u2019s for sure \u2013 and that\u2019s a good thing. Competition is a good thing. A diversity of opinions and visions are good for democracy. There\u2019s nothing worse than the apathy that acclimations represent. It means no one cares enough to challenge for the office. And worse still, no one cares enough to care that no one cares.
\nTo me, that seems a real tragedy.
\nOne of the most precious rights that we have in this country is the right to vote; the right to decide who governs on our behalf.
\nIt is not a right to take for granted, given that literally millions of people still do not have that right. I don\u2019t mean to sound preachy, but I do think that we should never lose sight of the fact that we are indeed very blessed to have a free society \u2013 and that that freedom came at great cost to so many.
\nSo the multiple names on the ballot is a welcome sign. Aurora\u2019s political landscape may be many things, but apathetic is not one of them.
\nAs it stands, the electorate will have a wide diversity of choices for the office of councillor. Unlike other municipalities, Aurora has an at-large system of representation, as opposed to a ward system. We elect eight councillors to represent the entire town instead of just one to represent our respective ward(s).
\nThere are pluses and minuses with both methods of representation, and I will do a separate column on the pros and cons of a ward system at a later date. But speaking to what we currently have in Aurora, the at-large system presents an interesting challenge for the voting public.
\nVoters choose up to eight people that they would like to see sit at the council table. In essence, it rewards those 8 candidates that have the most votes. Period. There is no ranking. Just first eight past the post.
\nAnd therein lays the problem. Many voters end up voting for eight people simply because they feel they have to \u2013 not because they think every one of them will do a good job. I have heard many, many people say things like \u201cI have six names, but don\u2019t know what to do about the final two\u2026\u201d and then they just choose two names randomly to round out their list of chosen candidates. They feel like the HAVE to vote for eight names or else they have not truly voted. That\u2019s a big mistake in my opinion.
\nWhy? The problem with that approach, is that in doing so, in just randomly adding names to your list of candidates for whom you\u2019ve voted, you are giving the same weight to these throw away candidates as you do to the six that you actually endorse. You have given all eight an equal chance at election, when you only truly support six.
\nIt is how we end up with some curious results, shall we say, at election time.
\nThose elected should attain office because enough people truly supported them \u2013 not because they won the lottery of names that simply rounded out a list.
\nIn the end, it is your right as a voter to have a say in who represents you at the table. Make sure the names you check off are those that you think are best suited for the job, not just to complete a list. If you think there`s only four or six good candidates, then so be it. Don\u2019t force yourself to add two more names or else, don`t be surprised if your \u2013 plus two end up at that table\u2026
\nUntil next week, stay informed, stay involved because this is, after all, Our Town.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas Well folks, we officially have a horse race. As of Friday there were 4 candidates registered for the office of Councillor with at least seven of the eight (and perhaps all eight?) incumbents expected to register within the next month or two as well. If the past three elections are any measure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1sM","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-14 13:35:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5628\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}