Voting matters

Don’t like the results of Tuesday’s primary election? One question: Did you actually vote?

Preliminary results show that 31,858 out of 119,081 registered Butte County voters headed to the polls. That 26.75 percent participation rate doesn’t count the provisional ballots and mail-in ballots handed in at polling places, but it’s a strong indicator that the predictions of low voter turnout were accurate. If that bears out in the rest of the state, we’re talking about historic lows.

This was an important election in Chico. Locally, two supervisor seats were on the line; so was a Butte County Superior Court judgeship; the posts of county clerk-recorder and treasurer-tax collector were decided, too. Because of California’s new “top-two primary,” the top-two vote-getters from state races head to the November general election.

But another local contest will be on the line then, too—that of Butte County assessor. None of the five candidates in that race earned more than 50 percent of the vote. The top-two vote-getters turned out to be Diane Brown and Bill Connelly, who are separated by a 2 percent margin that went in favor of Connelly.

They will battle it out in the fall and the stakes are high. Brown has the qualifications because she’s worked in the Butte County Assessor’s Office for more than 30 years, currently holding the position of principal appraiser. But Connelly has name recognition because he’s a Butte County supervisor. Every vote will count.