Vote about a vote about a vote

Yesterday on KNOM we described the advisory election as a "non-binding vote about whether the Legislature should vote to have a binding vote next year." Apparently, Nome voters responded to our passive-aggressive response to the Legislature, inculcated our natural news media cynicism, and stayed home. Turnout in Nome was about 13 percent yesterday.

I was correct in one part of yesterday's prediction and incorrect in the other. The measure failed and I was wrong about either how liberal Anchorage is or how much they would sway the electorate. But I was right in that people on the losing side are already - rightly - pointing out that the ballot is meaningless because so few people turned out. (We had an AP story this morning quoting Hollis French saying something to this effect. I can't find it on-line.)

Finally, thanks for the discussion on my post about reasons to vote "no." My larger point was that we heard a lot about the "sanctity of marriage" in this debate but almost nothing about the "sanctity of the constitution." I find constitutions profound and important documents which should rarely be tampered with.

This vote will change nothing in Juneau.