LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Dear Editor, I clearly remember the first time I voted. It was a long time ago.
In those days, voting actually involved stepping into a booth the size of a small walk-in closet. Once you stepped inside, you’d pull a big lever that drew a dense green curtain over the entrance so that nobody could see how you voted. And you pulled the same lever back when you were finished. That registered your vote and drew back the curtain. Then you’d walk out of the booth feeling like you had accomplished something.
I used to watch as the machines were unloaded from the back of big delivery trucks at the polling location. I’d always offer up a quick prayer that the delivery guys didn’t drop one. It wasn’t that I thought the machines would be damaged; after all, they were built like battleships. It was the delivery guys I worried about. If one of them lost their footing or their grip on a machine, there was no telling what would happen. Fortunately, that was never a problem – at least not that I knew of.
Today? Those old Shoup machines are tucked into the corners of museums – if they’re anywhere at all. But when you voted on one of them, you knew you had voted. Today’s machines, the size of an old portable record player (I still wonder who made off with my 45s), do the same job, and a poll worker can wrangle two at the same time, maybe three or four with some creative carrying technique.
Efficient? Yes. Accurate? Yes? But in their sterility and compactness, they’ve removed much of the drama from voting. The whirring and grumbling sounds they make as they ingest your ballot just don’t compare to the industrial strength banging and clanging and clicking and clacking of the old machines.
The first time I used one was in 1971. I had just turned 21 the week before Election Day and I was excited that I could actually cast my first ballot. But I was also kind of peeved. Earlier that year, the 26th Amendment to the Constitution had been ratified, lowering the voting age to 18. That was a good thing, something many in my generation had been agitating for as part of our louder and more frequent protests against the Vietnam War. After all, we argued, if we were old enough to fight, we were definitely old enough to vote.
So I still had to wait until I was 21, but I voted. As I did, I thought about my high-school classmate, a kid named Leonard Keller. He never got to vote. He was an infantryman killed in South Vietnam’s Thua Thien province the previous year. He was only 19 years old. “This one’s for you, Lenny,” I said quietly as I stepped into the voting booth. While I hoped that my choices could help end the war, it dragged on for another four long and bloody years.
Voting means a lot to me. It’s important. It can change the course of history and it can prepare young students to make history. So I usually put a lot of effort into helping to get out the vote in every election.
Unfortunately, I can’t do that in what would have been the upcoming San Marcos School Board Election. Here in San Marcos, the May 2 election has been cancelled. Only two candidates filed for the three positions that are up this year. So they’re automatically elected.
For the seat that drew no candidates, District 2, the San Marcos CISD advertised for applicants for a one-year appointment. I was happy to learn that a number of applications have been received. This will kick off a public process that is expected to result in an appointee by the time the seat becomes vacant next month. Plans are for that seat to go back on the ballot next May to fill the remainder of the term.
I’m grateful to Board Vice President Jessica Cain and Board Secretary Sandra Sepulveda Lopez for their willingness to serve another term on the Board of Trustees. And, as she prepares to leave the Board next month, I salute Trustee Margie Villalpando for her many years of dedicated service.
The San Marcos CISD is operating through an extremely difficult financial situation, with a budget expected to result in an $8 million shortfall. As Board President Ann Halsey explained going into the current cycle last March, the District had not received an increase to the State’s per pupil finding rate since 2019.
Despite stringent belt tightening, costs continued to rise during that period and are rising even faster today. The war in Iran, which no level of planning or belt-tightening could have anticipated, has brought the cost of oil to some of the highest
