Election selections
Elections have been an essential part of Newsday’s coverage and mission since its inception, both in the news section and on the opinion pages, which operate independently of the news operation. For the editorial board, that has meant evaluating and providing guidance on specific candidates for particular offices, as well as making general entreaties to readers to exercise their franchise and vote.
The board made such a plea on Nov. 3, 1941, barely a year after the paper’s founding and one day before voters were to go to the polls.
“But don’t forget to vote,” the board implored. “Not only on state issues, but on those in the county as well, you should cast your ballot at the polls tomorrow.”
The lion’s share of the editorial, titled “Vote to Save Lives,” was an impassioned plea to reject a state proposal to divert $60 million from a fund to eliminate grade crossings and spend it instead on highways and parkways, an issue the Point examined two weeks ago. It was accompanied by a cartoon depicting the cloaked figure of Death called “The Toll Collector” writing on a list of the deceased while standing next to a grade crossing.
Alas, New York’s voters disagreed and approved the diversion, and Long Island is still plagued by grade crossings. It was the only one of Newsday’s recommendations on four state proposals with which voters disagreed.
In 1969, there were four more statewide proposals on the ballot — one of which the board described in a Nov. 3 editorial called “The Summing Up” as “a ‘Conservation Bill of Rights’ in the State Constitution” — and this time New York voters agreed with the board and approved all four propositions.
Also on the ballot that year was a Suffolk proposal to establish the Southwest Sewer District, which the board endorsed and voters barely approved, having overwhelmingly rejected a more ambitious plan two years earlier. Of course, on that Election Day, no one could foresee the scandals to come that short-circuited the further installation of sewers, leaving Suffolk in roughly the same place as it was 53 years ago — in desperate need of sewers.
Sometimes voters — and editorial boards — get it right, and sometimes not. But as the board pointed out back in 1941, the most important thing is to partake in the process.
“This is the occasion when you can put into concrete form your objection or approval of your present representatives; when you can decide whether you want a change or are content,” the board wrote. “It is an opportunity no registered voter should ignore.”
— Michael Dobie, Amanda Fiscina-Wells
Michael Dobie is a retired member of the Newsday editorial board.
