{"id":8878,"date":"2014-11-05T12:48:47","date_gmt":"2014-11-05T17:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=8878"},"modified":"2014-11-19T16:19:30","modified_gmt":"2014-11-19T21:19:30","slug":"inside-aurora-post-election-burning-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-post-election-burning-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: Post-Election Burning Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many thanks to all of the candidates, volunteers and others who participated in the recent municipal election.
\nAfter ten months of activity, I think we\u2019re all breathing a small sigh of relief that it\u2019s over, but there are still a few outstanding questions here in Aurora, such as:
\nWith such features as personal attacks, sign vandalism, and hate-type literature, why was this campaign so unusually negative, and did that influence how people voted?
\nDid the machine into which the returning officer placed your completed ballot not look like disturbingly like a shredder?
\nWhy do they choose polling stations with such limited parking?
\nAlthough the ward option was defeated this time, is there a chance it will come back as a question in the 2018 election?
\nAnd assuming the proposed reduction in Councillors from eight to six goes through, is anyone on Council willing to suggest in 2018 that residents be asked whether the number should be further reduced from six to four?
\nHow large a percentage decrease will we see in letters to the editor now that people don\u2019t have the election and its participants to comment on?
\nAnd what will be the next big Town-related issue on everyone\u2019s minds?
\nHow many unsuccessful candidates considering a run in the next election will actively participate in and contribute to Town activities, initiatives and committees over the next few years, and not wait until 2018 to start doing so?
\nWith voter turnout at only around 35 per cent, just how many candidates, what sort of issues, or how long an election period is required to encourage a greater number of Aurorans to turn up at the polls?
\nWith more people running every year, is there a point at which there are too many candidates for the average voter to logically assimilate everyone\u2019s platform?
\nWith more and more municipalities offering this, when are we going to see Aurora enter the 21st century and adopt electronic voting?
\nWill there be this much interest in Town about our next election; the Federal one in 2015?
\nIf every year each candidate seems to note at some point how important it is that they go door-to-door to meet people, why is it that no one showed up at our door over the past few months, and over the past eight municipal elections, we\u2019ve only ever had one candidate drop by our house?
\nWith Town Hall\u2019s Council Chamber bursting at the seams with attendees every time there\u2019s a debate or other pre-election event, why don\u2019t they hold these at a larger venue?
\nBetween signs, fliers, voters lists, ballots and related election materials, just how much paper was used (and recycled) during the recent campaign?
\nAnd shouldn\u2019t this volume of paper be going down each election with the increasing prevalence of social media and related forms of electronic communication?
\nFor current Councillors who were not elected this time for whatever reason, do they get to keep the name signs that identify their place at the Council table, or does the Town store them away to save money in case these people run again and are elected in future?
\nWho will be the last candidate to take down their election signs?
\nAnd has the Town ever had to fine candidates who were delinquent in taking down their signs in a timely manner?
\nWith Provincial and Federal election periods typically being around 5 weeks, isn\u2019t it time to reduce the 10 month long municipal election period?
\nIf not, here\u2019s something to look forward to; it\u2019s only about 37 months until the start of the next municipal election campaign.<\/p>\n

Feel free to e-mail Scott at: machellscorners@gmail.com<\/em><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston Many thanks to all of the candidates, volunteers and others who participated in the recent municipal election. After ten months of activity, I think we\u2019re all breathing a small sigh of relief that it\u2019s over, but there are still a few outstanding questions here in Aurora, such as: With such features as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2jc","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 09:06:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8878","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=8878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8878\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}