Alternative election options

On Tuesday, Nov. 3 only 43.67 percent of Greene’s more than 11,000 registered voters went to the polls to cast their ballots.
Of the approximate 4,800 who did go, 55 cast their ballots for write-in candidates on the local level. Nineteen were cast for supervisor from Ruckersville, and one for supervisor from Stanardsville. Twenty-three were cast for a school board representative from Ruckersville, and 10 for a school board representative from Stanardsville.
“Mickey Mouse got a few votes, and SpongeBob SquarePants got one,“ says Registrar Sandra Shifflett. Other such write-ins includes such as “Anyone Else”, “No Not Her”, “None of the Above” and Alfred E. Newman of MAD Magazine.
Such votes, says Ellen Deane, chair of the county’s Electoral Board, are a waste.
“Why even bother?“ she asks at a time when both supervisor Buggs Peyton and school board member Jason Collier are calling for Greene’s public to provide the county with more candidates.
After his win last week, Peyton commented that he was disappointed “that there were so few candidates in county-wide races.“
And before being re-elected to his seat on the county’s school board - for which he ran unopposed - Collier called referred to his lack of competition as “downright un-American.“
As a result, the Record called a few of the real write-ins, to see if they would consider running.
Warren Rucker, H. Flint Engleman III and Roger Schweikert, all of Ruckersville, were written in to represent Ruckersville on the board of supervisors.
Rucker says he will not consider running.
“I’m like so many others who rely on a dedicated few to do the dirty work,“ Rucker explains. “When I was working, I moved my family all over, and neglected my wife due to professional responsibilities. When I retired, I retired. Now my obligations are to my wife and my home.“
Rucker adds that his “hat is off to those who do contribute their time and energy to the county and other folks, even though I do not always agree with them.
Engleman, however, says that he might “very well” run for the board in the future. “The county has growing transportation needs that are not being prioritized. We need to make transportation a priority,“ he says.
And Schweikert has also considered running. “I thought about running all year, but in the end I just couldn’t do it due to my family and work schedule,“ he says.
As for the Greene County School Board, Pauline Hovey and Lloyd Staples, both of Barboursville, and Richard Tyburski of Ruckersville all received at least one write-in vote.
Pauline Hovey says she will not consider running at this time “because there’s too much going on in my life.“ She explains that as president of the Greene Education Foundation, she is busy with that organization, though she doesn’t “know what the future holds.“
Tyburski says he will consider running in the future, though the one write-in vote he received was a result of writing his own name in. “I took my daughter to the polls to show her how voting worked, and that candidates could be written in,“ he explains. “Right now, time is a big thing, but I would definitely consider running.“
And Staples says, “I do not have time at the moment. It might be something I would inquire about in the future.“