Did Rordan Hart Not Vote in Tburg Elections?
In the year 2000, Rordan Hart registered to vote here in Tompkins County as an independent – meaning that he decided not to affiliate with any political party. That year, Hart voted in the general election. The records show that in 2004, he voted in the general election. However, there are no records of Rordan Hart having cast a vote in the Trumansburg village elections during that time. Nor is Rordan Hart recorded as having voted in the village election here in Trumansburg in 2005.
Now, Rordan Hart wants the people of Trumansburg to turn out to vote to elect him to a position on the Trumansburg Village Board of Trustees.
Has Rordan Hart himself ever even cast a vote in an election for the Board of Trustees?
Important Caveat: This information I have is partial. It’s based on a database that only goes through the year 2005.
Also, there’s some reason to believe, given the database, that Rordan Hart was actually registered to vote before 2000, just not as an independent. After all, Hart’s registration was on October 10, 2000 – just a month before election time.
So, it’s possible that Hart voted in a village election before the year 2000. It’s also possible that Hart voted in some election, congressional perhaps, after 2005. If anyone has some evidence of such a thing, then I’d be happy to report it here.
Caveat aside, there were important Trumansburg village elections between 2000 and 2005. The fact that Rordan Hart did not bother to vote in a single one of those elections does not speak well of his level of awareness and involvement as a citizen of Trumansburg.
Rordan Hart criticizes the current Village Board of Trustees, and he’s free to do that. However, the value of his criticisms should be considered alongside his own failure to participate as a citizen in the process that selected that Board. If there really is a serious problem with the Village Board of Trustees, then Hart himself must take some part of the blame for the problem. Last time around, it seems that Hart didn’t even bother to show up.
By the way, the records show that Geoffrey Hart, the man who is now suing the Village Board of Trustees, didn’t show up to vote in village elections either. I wonder, does he intend to follow a path of election-by-lawsuit?
I plan to vote for him, but has anyone asked Filiberto how long he plans to stay with us after he completes his Ph.D. (this year, according to the resume at http://www.human.cornell.edu/che/PAM/Academics/PhD/upload/cv06filiberto-2.pdf)? A five-year term is pretty long, and the prospect of Mayor Levine making another appointment is downright scary.
Jonathan–
This close to the election, you should probably at least call him to ask. Would hate to hear later that something inaccurate, or a mis-reading of the database, made the election unfair. He says call him anytime you have a question, right?
You know, Krys, this close to the elections, I don’t want to wait in getting this information available. It is strong testimony on the civic character of Rordan Hart (his personal character is something separate, and less relevant).
I’ve looked at the Tompkins County database pretty carefully, comparing Rordan Hart’s voting record with the voting records of other people to make sure that there’s not any glitch that’s causing the records of certain elections to be purged.
I’ve checked to make sure that there isn’t more than one Rordan Hart or Geoffrey Hart in the database.
I’ve also put a prominent caveat in this article so that readers can evaluate the information’s incomplete nature. I’ve also put out a call for people to give me contradictory evidence if they have it, which I’ll be happy to post.
I know for a fact that Rordan Hart and his supporters read this blog, and the fact that they sent out mailings around the village suggests that they have a current voter database from which they can provide evidence of Rordan Hart’s voting record and Geoffrey Hart’s voting record, if it is not as I have said.
I’m working from public voting records. If that’s not accurate, then there’s a story in that too.
If the public records are incorrect, then it’s the candidate’s responsibility to correct them, and prove that he has, in fact voted.
OK, Jonathan, sounds like you are being pretty thorough. Sorry about my wimpishness, I just hate all that whiney “unfair, unfair!” stuff in retrospect, ya know? So, Rordan’s gang, if he is a voter, I guess you’d better show evidence. If not– and not Dad, neither, well, please see my previous post about democracy not being a spectator sport.
[...] Why is Rordan Hart ahead? One explanation is that Rordan Hart represents the majority – the majority of Trumansburg residents who do not care enough about the village to turn out to vote in a village election. As I reported yesterday, elections records seem to indicate that Rordan Hart has not voted in the last three village elections, if he has ever voted in any Trumansburg village election at all. (As I said yesterday, if Rordan Hart can show me the election records to prove that I am mistaken about this, I will be happy to report my mistake – so far, I have heard no response from Mr. Hart.) [...]