Tuesday, November 2nd sent a strong message to elected officials in Washington. “Listen to the voice of the people. If you do not, you will be out of a job.” Having refused on several occasions to move the Town of Leesburg Election Day from May to November, the majority of the Town Council may learn this lesson. (I wrote about this issue and the popularity of moving Election Day to November last month in an article Let Democracy Work and published it in Loudoun Leadership.) The public comments, letters and emails to the Town Council overwhelmingly supported moving the Town Election Day. Yet the majority of the Town Council voted No on a resolution to change the Town Election Day to November. How can anyone not be in favor of getting the largest turnout for an election, unless they have some hidden agenda? You can read Dave Butler’s and Kevin Wright’s reasons as explained to The Washington Post “Great Start” for Leesburg petition on Town elections. Does this make any sense to you? Not to me.
One Leesburg resident, Barbara Bayles-Roberts, who spoke to the council on this subject, developed a petition to place this issue on the ballot for next November. I was one of about ten volunteers who stood at the polls on November 2nd collecting signatures on the petition. The support for the initiative was amazing. There was more interest in signing the change petition than in talking with the surrogates for the two National candidates who were handing out literature. Over 2,300 signatures were collected. That’s more than voted in the May Town elections in 2008 and close to the number who voted last spring.
