Voting, What Is It Good For?

by Betty Jean Grant

Betty Jean Grant

Now, I know some of you who are reading this are probably wondering what the heck is going on with me or what portion of my mind I have obviously lost! But don’t worry; all marbles are still in place. I just needed a tagline to see if the voters knew that there are a few political races this year.

Chief among the positions on the ballot are the U.S. Congress seat currently held (for life it seems) by Congressman Tim Kennedy, the NYS Governor’s race, the NYS Senate races, the Erie County Clerk’s position and a few state supreme court vacancies and all district seats in the Erie County Legislature.

There are quite a number of races on the ballot and Early Voting does starts in a few days but can someone tell this writer if there has been any debates, townhall meetings or GOTV (Get Out The Vote) events in the city, especially on the Eastside of Buffalo, where the area and it residents need a little TLC, to be reassure us that we, indeed matter?

One thing that is blatantly obvious someone or numerous someone’s do not want a large turnout of voters for this year’s Nov. 3rd, General Election. In many of the county’s legislative races, the incumbent legislator has no opposition and, therefore, no challenger competing for the seat. In cases such as these, the sentiment seems to be, “ If you don’t run anyone against our candidate, we won’t run anyone against yours!” This happens more often than we know and certainly more often than the political honchos will admit.

In the race for Governor of NYS, what are some of the issues the two candidates are campaigning on? We have heard how these candidates feel about data centers, AI and fossil fuel and the key word, Affordability. Their high-priced commercials have told us everything we need to know. That is good but since the homeless population is ballooning out of control so much that some families with young children are sleeping in the bus shelters after the last bus has departed for the night, what are their stances on how to address these concerns?

Here we are voting for a governor and other positions that voters in the city of Buffalo should be asking questions about how are they going to be doing things differently that will pull this city out of the stagnation Buffalo finds itself in? Everybody is running around criticizing our current bunch of elected leaders and failing to engage them in meaningful dialogue that could be the start of a collective effort to address some of the concerns of a troubled electorate. This writer has two important questions that I am directing this at our governor.

The first question is: “Gov. Hochul, that new stadium, had it been built in Buffalo would have jumpstarted a city that has been on terminal life support. Who had the final say in where the public monies, taxpayers’ sponsored stadium would be built?” The second question is: “Why was Buffalo good enough or maybe bad enough to put a cancer-causing toxic tunnel in the city but not a revenue generating new, public supported, Buffalo Bills’ Football Stadium somewhere in downtown Buffalo?”

Early Voting starts Saturday, Oct. 24th. Every council district has a polling site. Please call Erie County Democratic Committee CDC 716-853 2511 or Erie County Board of Elections: 716-858-8891 for more information.