Mandatory voting would give us much better government

Leaves turning in Hackensack's quiet Fairmount section, where several streets are named after trees. Residents vote at the Fairmount Elementary School on Grand Avenue.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

One of the key reasons Governor Christie won a second term a year ago was low voter turnout, setting a dubious record for a governor's race in New Jersey.

Of course, the other was the media, which failed to uncover the role of key Christie aides in the George Washington Bridge lane closures two months before the election. 

Fewer than 39.6 percent of registered voters cast ballots last November, and a few weeks earlier, only 24.5 percent -- one in four -- voted in the special U.S. Senate election.

National news

On Page 1 today, The Record reports get-out-the-vote drives in North Carolina and other states, but where is the local version of that story?

As usual, the lazy local assignment editors can't wait until Tuesday's election is over so they can go back to sleep.

As for Editor Martin Gottlieb, a carpetbagger from Manhattan, he could care less about what happens in New Jersey, as his front pages clearly show.

Today, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa again leads the paper, and there is a takeout on sports betting in Delaware (A-1).

The front-page story on chronically absent students continues the paper's practice of reporting more on schools in Paterson than in Hackensack (A-1).

Voting as duty

Voter turnout in Hackensack is even lower than in the state overall.

In May 2013, when a reform City Council slate triumphed, only 3,513 people or 17.2 percent of registered voters cast ballots.

Turnout in the April 2013 school board election was even lower.

Mandatory voting is the only solution, with fines or other penalties for those who don't cast ballots.

Politics wouldn't have as much influence, and candidates who use inaccurate attack ads wouldn't be as effective.

We might even be able to get rid of mean-spirited political hacks like Christie and Rep. Scott Garrett, the Tea Party Republican from Wantage who has managed to stay in office for close to 12 years.

On Tuesday, voters in the 5th Congressional District, which runs from the Delaware to the Hudson and includes Bergen County, have a chance to deny Garrett a seventh term.

Can we vote out the editors?

Image via Wikipedia

Imagine if readers could vote out the editors of The Record of Woodland Park -- such lifers as Deirdre Sykes, Tim Nostrand, Barbara Jaeger, Liz Houlton (the hag in rags) and Jim "We Can't Get Rid of Him" McGarvey, plus shameless Editor Francis Scandale, who has cheapened the front page in the past decade.

Even when they are handed a great story, they don't know what to do with it.

Look at the clunky set of headlines on A-1 today, with "GOP" used on each of the two main stories, for an echo that is a big no-no in headline writing. 

Nothing would have been wrong with an umbrella head across the page to highlight the victory of Republicans in Bergen County and the U.S. House of Representatives.

And what does the drop headline on the House story mean? The past two years have been nothing but divisive, so the head, "Anti-Obama sentiment ushers in divided era," is confusing. It refers to what the story calls "the transition to divided government," a reference to the Senate and House being controlled by opposing parties. Also, the word "era" is simply the wrong word.


Seven reporters were sent out to talk to voters, but their voices are buried on A-7.  Not much is made of how the Tea Party fell on its face in North Jersey or the role of Democrats who crossed party lines to elect County Clerk Kathleen Donovan as Bergen County executive.


Scandale, Sykes and their minions love election day. It means they can fill the paper with routine election  stories and don't have to scramble to fill all the holes left by the mostly unproductive local staff.