Holinger: Message delivered, but few bothered to vote

Not everyone owns a house the size of a school, but the variety of styles, from chateau to Victorian, turned a neighborhood jaunt into an architectural odyssey.

No, I wasn’t casing the neighborhood to find who had dogs or who hadn’t picked up their newspapers. I was trying to help three school board candidates get elected who would question present spending practices and vote for fiscal restraint where needed.

Even with such confidence, approaching the first door was daunting.

I rang the bell. A dog barked. No one came. I left fliers and moved on.

A freight train rumbled by Sunset Park. I rang the next bell. A dog barked as though caught in a bear trap. No one came.

At the third house, a dog barked, and just as I was thinking I’d do better leaving Kibbles and Bits samples, a woman appeared.

“Hi!” I practically screamed. “If you’re looking for someone to vote for on the Geneva school board, these three candidates would be excellent.”

She thanked me.

Gee, I was changing my hometown’s future! Surely, the woman would skip making dinner, speed read the fliers, and email encouragement to Geneva friends and relations to vote my recommendations.

Over the next few days, if homeowners asked me a question, it targeted how the board spent taxpayers’ money, as in, “Your candidates going to do something about taxes?”

My answer suggested that that was one of the main reasons I was out here.

People gave me the impression they would, at the very least, read the fliers and vote, even if not for my candidates. Fine. If all I did was nudge them to participate, encourage them to consider facts and insights beyond published reports, and to look beyond local newspaper endorsements, then what I was doing mattered.

Election Day. Oh, Warren Zevon, I feel your pain: “Poor, poor pitiful me!”

Only one person for whom I canvassed won. Sad – but not depressing.