Editorial Editorial (June 10, 2005)

Thorne must reach out to the majority who didn't vote

Now that the hard-fought, highly spirited special City Council election is over, it's important for newly elected Jerry Thorne to recognize the value of the independence he touted during his campaign. Thorne is known as an independent thinker, not beholden to any voting block or a one-issue constituency. He insisted that, if elected, he would work through the issues carefully and listen to all in the community before making his decisions. We liked that platform and supported him. That his colleagues on the council did not support his candidacy may make his goal of truly serving as an independent councilman all that much easier.

Still, there is often a tendency when a new individual is elected to think that the community as a whole agrees with his positions. But based on Tuesday's vote, we just don't know. Some voters obviously did, and Thorne outdistanced runner-up Brian Arkin by nearly 500 votes and Dan Faustina by more than 1,500. There were no exit polls to guide us as to why voters cast their votes for one candidate over another, although in this unusual special election the guess is that most voters had a favorite candidate in mind when they cast their ballots.

Even so, we believe the results tell an interesting story. We have about 67,000 residents in Pleasanton. Of these, 38,330 are actually registered to vote. A total of 8,530 of these registered voters, or about 22 percent, showed up to vote in this election. Among the votes cast by voters, Thorne, the winner, received 3,512, or 41 percent. Arkin received 3,022, or 35.4 percent, and Faustina finished with just under 2,000 votes, or 23 percent.

Given the enrollment in our schools of 14,000 and even another 6,000 for private school students, pre-schoolers and toddlers, that leaves about 9,000 voting-age adults who are not registered, who don't vote. From those registered voters who could have cast ballots, Thorne won his council seat with just a 9 percent vote, Arkin 7.8 percent and Faustina 5 percent. Considering the total adult population, Thorne actually received only 7.7 percent of the vote of all Pleasanton adults who are eligible to vote; Arkin received 6 percent and Faustina's total dropped to just 4 percent.

We cite these figures to remind elected officials that a majority vote doesn't always mean that most constituents favor a particular candidate or their positions. While we are focusing on election results from Tuesday, it's important for Thorne and all on the council to keep in mind that they are elected by very small numbers. Often the votes cast for their victory are just slightly higher than the votes cast for the loser.

The message that Pleasanton elected officials need to take from Tuesday's results is that they must not confuse their own constituents with the community at large which, for whatever reason and in huge numbers, didn't vote. We congratulate Thorne on his victory. We endorsed him because of his independence and experience. Now that he's been elected, we're counting on him to seek out the views and hear from the large part of Pleasanton that did not join in this important election so that they can have a chance to weigh in on the issues and council decisions that best serve us all.

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