According to an obscure announcement on FVCC’s website, incumbent trustees Tom Harding, John Phelps, Robert Nystuem, and Shannon Lund were re-elected yesterday with a “majority of precincts reporting,” whatever “majority of precincts means.”
The announcement provides vote totals for all candidates, but omits precinct level results, and the number of registered voters and ballots cast in each precinct, making it impossible to determine the turnout.
This announcement is preliminary, but the college can and must do better. At a minimum the results should be made available as a spreadsheet file. Even School District 5 does that.
This happens after every school levy or trustee election. The results are announced, the level of detail is usually minimal, and the information disappears from the institution’s website soon after the official canvass and stamp of approval. The attitude seems to be “Whew. Glad that’s over. Survived another descent into politics. Now we can get back to important matters.”
Which means: they can get back to teaching history, but not practicing it.
That needs to change. Pronto.
Let’s use FVCC as an example. The precinct level returns from every election should be posted to the college’s website as (a) HTML tables, and (b) spreadsheets for download. The data should include the number of registered voters, ballots cast, and all vote totals. Maps displaying the districts, along with population information for each district for each election should also be posted.
All school districts should do the same. As a convenience, the data should be posted on a central website, perhaps the website of the county’s superintendent of schools.
Collecting and organizing these data sets should not be an onerous task. If the staff cannot find time to do it, or refuse to do it, student help should be enlisted. Assembling the historical record would be a fine project for the college and high school political clubs.