Why Nicole File was defeated

I was tempted to title this note why Terri Smith got 42,871 votes, because that’s the answer to why Nicole File was defeated.

Terri Smith was unopposed. Under Georgia law, she needed just one vote to get elected. She could have gone out and voted for herself, and she would have been elected.

So we had 42,870 voters who went through the list and mindlessly decided to put an X beside her name, even though there was absolutely no need for them to do it. That gesture was repeated over and over for all the unopposed candidates. They pretty much all got 40,000 votes.

The great majority of these voters, when they went through the list of unopposed candidates, did not realize Janet Smola had opposition. They gave her their vote just as they did the other candidates who didn’t need their vote. That’s how Janet Smola got about 88 percent of the vote. It’s no reflection on Nicole File.

What that tells me is that while The Citizen is distributed to most Fayette County citizens, fairly few read it and thus have the political awareness needed to realize what, or who, is on the ballot. The percentage of people who read the Citizen blogs is also fairly low.

Too many of our citizens have no clue, and you can’t force them to educate themselves before they vote. Newspapers used to be greatly educational tools for the electorate, especially if they would present all sides of an issue as The Citizen attempts to do. But if people don’t read them, ignorance rules.

Take it to the primary

Submitted by The Wedge on Wed, 11/05/2008 - 6:21pm.

That is the way. Or get the signatures and get on the ballot as a libritarian, a communist, or whatever. Write in campaigns are a waste of time and effort. 12% of the vote was not even close to message material to the incumbants.

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If she'd played by the rules ...

Submitted by The Crime Dog on Wed, 11/05/2008 - 4:40pm.

... and taken on Smola during the primary, she might've had a legitimate shot at winning.

That's assuming she'd have taken the extra time to refocus her platform on the tough decisions the BOE will face in the future. I think if she distanced herself from Steve Brown, she probably would've done just that.

But Fayette has learned about electing "Brownies": people who complain but have no constructive ideas about how to solve problems.

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Crime Dog

Submitted by hutch866 on Wed, 11/05/2008 - 9:37pm.

I voted for File over Smola, I also voted for the splost, the reason I voted against Smola is that her waiting till the primary was over to bring up the splost seemed very underhanded to me, and by doing so she lost any trust I had in her. Smola is more concerned with keeping her job then she is in doing her job. BTW tell me just which rules File broke in running a write in campaign.

I yam what I yam....Popeye

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IF you want to Run for Office, do it right...

Submitted by Spyglass on Wed, 11/05/2008 - 10:02am.

What chance does a "write in" candidate have really? I say NONE.

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