Comments on: Voter Apathy? I’m Not Concerned about It

By: elena

elena — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 21:22:53 +0000

What’s ALA again?

By: FinallyaLibrarian

FinallyaLibrarian — Tue, 31 May 2011 13:40:04 +0000

Who says you can’t learn anthing from reading the AL, that quickmeme thing is pretty cool!

By: John

John — Fri, 27 May 2011 16:58:18 +0000

+1 to Spencer.

When I was in high school, I didn’t bother voting for Class President and such. Why bother? These were inconsequential positions in an inconsequential organization.

By: Oleg K.

Oleg K. — Fri, 27 May 2011 00:53:54 +0000

AlwaysWanted2B:

You’re right. Lack of difference was brought up in the survey, though, like apathy it wasn’t as big an issue as most people (including me) thought it would be.

By: AlwaysWanted2B

AlwaysWanted2B — Thu, 26 May 2011 22:18:52 +0000

I think there is another reason why people don’t vote and that is there just really not that much difference between the candidates. There really isn’t any controversy at the top. We don’t get ALA presidential candidates who propose something radical like closing all the school libraries in the U.S.

By: PC

PC — Thu, 26 May 2011 19:00:38 +0000

This reminded me of the AL:

http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/35n4/#by=sp

By: SafeLibraries

SafeLibraries — Wed, 25 May 2011 19:46:16 +0000

And remember, Greg McClay of the former SHUSH ran for an ALA office, but since he was conservative, his name was intentionally dropped from the ballot, with the name dropper explaining it would not be fair if she did not also drop her own name, which she did. A lot of people know and love Greg McClay. I wonder if his disclosure of this ALA election fraud has anything to do with the existing apathy?

By: Oleg K.

Oleg K. — Wed, 25 May 2011 19:07:51 +0000

You wrote: “I would have been interested in the number of people voted in ACRL or YALSA or LITA elections or one of their sections compared to the same people who didn’t vote for ALA Councilors. That number might have been just as revealing as the 80% nonvoting figure.”

I was interested too. I briefly looked and it’s usually within a few percentage points of the total turnout. You’re welcome to take a closer look, though:

http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/governance/alaelection/index.cfm

By: Oleg K.

Oleg K. — Wed, 25 May 2011 18:54:45 +0000

I like your headline, Annoyed, and I agree. I’m not concerned about voter apathy either. The relatively small percentage of non-voters that wrote “I don’t care” on the survey is right there with the ones that indicated there is nothing that could be done to make them vote. I’m not worried about those people, they’re too busy not caring to vote.

And it’s true, some people were probably too lazy or, more likely, didn’t have time to do (half-)hours (or was that just the amount of time you actually spent voting?) of research. However, many came up with good suggestions for how ALA could make doing research easier. I recommended having less candidates to research, we’ll see what happens. Somehow I doubt that members of the Council will put in the years it takes to shrink itself, but stranger things have happened.

As for higher-level ALA, everyone has a different opinion. It’s sort of like trying to discuss the Federal government in a pit full pundits, wonks, analysts, and monkeys. There’s enough snark and feces in the air to make it difficult for anyone with anything nice to say. Still, they exist, the goodnicks who feel like they benefit from all of ALA. Some of them filled out the survey because they didn’t vote. Perhaps it’ll be easier for those people next year. I expect I won’t know about it by reading this blog. That’s okay, you speak for a different segment of the library world.

(point of clarification – I’m a he. Last I checked.)

By: Cattycataloger

Cattycataloger — Wed, 25 May 2011 18:09:11 +0000

Ahh. I remember those early years when I was fresh out of Library School. I joined ALA back as a student. I cotinued to renew for a few years but then realized because of my peon status I would never ever get to a conference because “Someone” had to hold down the fort while the bigwigs were away. So not being part of the elite and not wanting to try to worm my way in I gave up my membership. Am I lost for not having it? Nope. Still got a job without it.