Letters: Voter apathy's wrong direction
Voters cast their vote at the Bayport-Blue Point High School in Bayport on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2015. Credit: James Carbone
The pundits and analysts have missed the real story behind the recent election: Why was 80 percent of the electorate indifferent about the candidates or the issues? . Acting District Attorney Madeline Singas got 57.9 percent of the 20.7 percent who voted in Nassau County -- not a mandate of the eligible electorate. That result tells us nothing about the mindset of the 80 percent who chose to stay home.
They sat out this election because they believed that there was nothing in it for them. A democratic society must pay heed to such a disconnect. A glance at the voting patterns in the legislative races proves the intentional outcome of gerrymandering, nothing more.
As for the politics of indifference, the candidate or political party that identifies the cause of such indifference, and effectively articulates it, will convince an eligible voter that his or her vote is important not to the party or the candidate, but important to the voter.
Charles Loiacono, Hicksville
To the question of who should be held responsible for Long Island losing the Islanders, the answer is, we the people .
No doubt Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray and the Republican Party went above and beyond to prevent the Lighthouse Project and deny then-county executive Tom Suozzi a success. But it was our county government that chose Aug. 1, 2011 to put a referendum to voters. A fraction of Nassau's registered voters decided the Islanders' fate for the rest of us that day.
Nobody can complain. We the people have had a different excuse for ignorance by not voting in 2011 and every year since.
Paul Eggers, Mineola
