We Won

Published on Nov. 14, 2012 in the Sun-Gazette



     Looking back, it seems even the weather was holding its breath, waiting for the outcome of last Tuesday’s election.  Once the preliminary results were in, it let go and gave us the Fall we’ve been waiting for.


     And the results are still very preliminary.  The massive confusion at Lindsay’s sole polling place was the result of changes made by the county elections department in response to state requirements regarding district boundary lines and the inadvertent creation recently of scads of tiny “precincts,” which spawned Vote By Mail ballots sent to tens of thousands of people (like me) who didn’t know they were coming or what they were when they arrived.  It also eliminated polling places all around the state, including Strathmore’s.


     Unfortunately, the county elections department didn’t anticipate the confusion, and the workers manning the polling place, many who have done this for years, were not prepared and were terribly upset by it. Rita Woodard herself spent at least four hours in Lindsay doing damage control, sending for additional supplies, unsnarling tangled procedures, and trying to understand what had happened.


     According to one of the election observers who stayed to observe the ballot count after the polls closed, of the total 1,521 ballots cast in Lindsay on Tuesday, only 465 were regular ballots that were counted electronically that night.  That’s only 30%.  The results that were posted Tuesday night included mail-in ballots that had been received and counted as of Nov. 2, four days before the election.  But they did not include the vast majority of people - 70% - who voted on Tuesday.


     It’s possible the results could change when (and if) all the ballots are counted.  I say “if” because it’s possible that many of the uncounted ballots won’t be, and I will be following that question as closely as possible.  But I don’t expect our “win” to disappear.


     We all won big-time in this election, especially locally.  Even Tim Daubert won, who didn’t receive enough votes to beat out the incumbents.  Tim’s primary goal all along has been to see change in Lindsay’s city government, and the people gave him that.  He sparked the campaign with his signs, he wrote to the voters explaining his position (in English and  Spanish,) honoring them.  Tim even gets the credit for convincing me (and many others) to care enough to begin attending city council meetings two years ago.  As a result of his heroic efforts, we have at least two new city council members and one incumbent who does her homework. Mayor Ed’s iron fist on the gavel will be heard no more.  We owe Tim for all this.


     Here in Lindsay we won because we finally believed we might make a difference. We came to the polls in great numbers, some of us for the first time, and put our hope on our ballots.  We voted for hope, and now we’ve got it.  Let us now turn that hope into action, and start to find ways to contribute to a new Lindsay.
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-Trudy Wischemann is a 20-year resident of Lindsay who never really believed “It’s always been this way - you can’t change it.”  You can send her your hope sightings - P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA  93247.