As many teachers will attest, we often learn more from our students than we expect. We have found the same to be true for our voter education ventures. We learned that Windsor has a lot of registered voters. (Hooray). We approached many Windsor residents and very few of them were not registered to vote. In most instances the individual was a new town resident (though we did try to encourage the person who had lived in Windsor for a year that he could no longer count himself as new and now was the time to get registered.) We suspected and reaffirmed that most people were more conscientious about voting in national elections than in local ones. Our voting statistics show that very clearly. And, in contrast, we also met people who proudly announced that they had voted in every town election (again hooray). Though many people were not aware that there are upcoming town elections on November 5th, many others were. Frequently there was, however, incomplete knowledge of candidates and parties. We introduced them to new faces and a new party who would be vying for their consideration. Some people closely followed issues in town. They expressed interest in the health and welfare of the town. Only a small number of people rebuffed our initiatives. “I don’t vote . . . No, I don’t want to talk about why.” Overall, we walked away from the voter education experience feeling good about Windsor residents. We are encouraged by the conversations we have had and the engagement shown. We know we have much more education to do as we work toward our goals of increasing voting participation. Please join our “Your Vote is Your Voice” campaign. Encourage neighbors, family members to get registered, to vote and to get involved.
Windsor residents are clearly hungry for more information on local issues and the upcoming local election. We encouraged them to come to the Meet the Candidates Nights being held on October 23 and 30 at Town Hall from 6-9pm. (Sponsored by the League of Women Voters and the Chamber of Commerce.)
