Election Follies

OK, so on the appointed Tuesday in November I dutifully trotted over to my local fire station cum polling place to vote for the US Representative candidate of my choice.  And as we all know the Good Citizens of this country pretty much told the Current Prez that We Are Not Amused.  Not that he’s listening, but we told him anyway.  For whatever its worth. 

Be that as it may, if you will think back to voting day, the weather was not the best.  Overcast shy, snow predicted (which did not materialize here at least), breezy and damp.  Not the best day for standing outside a polling place with candidate literature for the still undecided.  Plus there just the one item on the ballot, the US Representative post.  So I expected the League of Women Voters with their coffee pot inside the fire hall and a field of campaign posters outside the fire hall.  Imagine my surprise to find 4 separate tables with coffee, donuts and volunteers campaigning for their candidate.

That’s right folks, 4 tables of folks braving the cold to boost their candidate for County Treasurer in a Special Election to be held on January 11th.  Candidate #5 just had signs.  When candidate registration closed the following Friday there were 7 candidates for the illustrious post of Greene County Treasurer.  Who would have thunk it.  One candidate was actually a CPA, one was the current acting Treasurer, and the other 5 – well they could do arithmetic.  The Stay-at-Home-Mom promised to get “whatever training it takes” to do the job, the High School Math teacher held up his success in teaching algebra & geometry, 2 ladies offered their business management experience  as credentials and 1 women lauded her ancestor Gen. Robert E. Lee.  Near as I could tell the CPA and acting treasurer were serious contenders while the other 4 ladies and 1 gentleman were looking for a good paying job that lets you know a lot about other peoples business. 

Greene County wasn’t fooled by any of it.  They elected the CPA who currently is the assistant comptroller for the UVA Darden Business School’s Bequest Fund by 60.5% of the votes.  The Acting Treasures came in second.  Hopefully the treasurer’s office can now be capably run.  We’ve been plagued for the 18.5 years I’ve lived here with treasurers who refused to install computers, were constantly behind on required reconciliation statements, had tax mailing addresses and records that were 3 to 4 years out of date, and been audited by the Commonwealth Treasurer.  All in a county of less than 18,000 people with very low home ownership turnover.  Maybe we can get it done the right way now.