Latest / Chuck Douglas / What reason is there to vote in the 2025 local election

Transcript

What reason is there to vote in the 2025 local election · Chuck Douglas

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I need you to convince me of something. I need
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: you to call me and tell me why I should.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: But first I gotta tell you this. This is a
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: sign of the changing times, the changing world. The last
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: gay bar in San Francisco's financial district calls it quits
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: after forty seven years. That seem that is seriously monumental.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Forget about, you know, the anything you might feel about
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: gay people, homosexuality, gay bars, or any of that stuff.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: The fact that San Francisco was a mecca for that culture,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: for you know, the village people crowd for all, this
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: place closing down, That that says something. That's a monument
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: old piece of news right there.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Like you think, Sarah, I'm not trying to be rude.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: You think San Francisco.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: What do you think? Lifestyle?
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: That's one of the things that pops in.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Your Absolutely, I'm not making fun here at all. I'm
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: saying that that is that is a big I don't
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: know what it means. I don't know what kind of
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: shift that might indicate. But after forty seven years, that's
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: uh wow, that's that's that's something else. Did you go
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: to the polls today? Did you go vote today? Zach
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: be honest, I didn't. I have not yet either. Now
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: we have time, We have time. I'm honestly, I've been
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: trying to convince myself to bother with it.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, mine's on the way home, like it's I can
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: literally walk to my place vote.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I can do it on the way. Yeah,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: mine's close to home too. The polls are open until
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: seven thirty. I live in Columbus proper. And this is
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: your job, if you feel strongly about it. Eight two
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: one nine eight eight six eight two one WTV. And
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: you need to convince me that when I get out
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: of here tonight, I should go vote, because I can
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: still make it. I just don't know why every person
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: who is running for something is a Democrat. Most of
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: them are unopposed. Does it matter to me who wins
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: the bond issues? Five six, seven, eight nine. I would
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: most assuredly be a no vote, but I'll be out numbered.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: I always am, so does it matter? I just, you know,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: like everyone else, I want my vote to count. I
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: want to feel like I'm participating in some sort of process.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: But you know, buying a ticket to my own butt
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: whipping just doesn't appeal to me. And as I said,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: earlier the Franklin County GOP. Seriously, they deserve an award
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: for discovering the secret to invisibility. Is so distressing. Very
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: few Republicans running for anything in the county. We do
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: have some running for I know south Western City school Board.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: I believe we have several trustee positions that are on
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: the ballot in several townships today, but not the major
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: offices and nothing. Nothing in Columbus. It's very distressing. We
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: are the capital city of the state of Ohio. What
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: do we have? Eleven million, twelve million people in the
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: state of Ohio, yeah, something, and we're the capital. We
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: are the capital city. Home of the Buckeyes, home of
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: the Columbus Blue Jackets, home of the Columbus Clippers. Although
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: they are minor league, they are a big draw. Soon
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: to be home of the Columbus Aviators, the new UFL
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: football team. We are the home of battel We are
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: the place where you go for the center of science
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: and industry. We are we are Columbus. Shouldn't there be
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: more variety on the menu around here? It's lackluster, and
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: lackluster is being generous. I just can't. I can't motivate myself.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: So if you feel strongly about it, you tell me.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Explain to me why I need to go A two
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: one nine eight eighty six eight two one WTV And Nancy,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: you're on six to ten WTV at Hill.
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: Hello, Chuck. I just wanted to say to you that
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: in the last hour I was listening and you've kind
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: of hit on it again about you know, no Republicans
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: in Columbus, But I just wanted to tell you make
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: so many brilliant points and last I felt like last
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: hour you were on fire and I loved it. So
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: you go vote, always vote if you can still do it.
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: I went Arthur was pretty easy, and I have to
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: travel the San Francisco area about four times a year,
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: and for the last six years we don't even go
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: in the city.
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: No.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: I can see why everybody's believe it, whoever it is.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: I was hoping. I was hoping maybe there was some
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: positive change going on out there. Not necessarily that the
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: gay bar closing was positive, but it is a monumental
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: change after forty seven years, and I thought, yeah, you know,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: maybe maybe the complexion of the city is changing. It
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: was once a grand place. It was you know Rice
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Arone commercials, maybe we want to visit there, and.
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: Yes, but what you said was it was in the
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: financial district. Yes, and that got the hardest tip. That's
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: near the change one, not too far and all of that.
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: My son was working in the city and I was
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: elated when he took a job that was further intoth
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: I'd never like to go in that see any not.
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: Twenty nineteen a little scary.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Did you did you make it to the post today? Nancy?
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: Oh?
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: Yes, I did.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Now where you are?
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: They kept my driver they kept my driver's license.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Well, they got to get it back. They like the picture.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: They wanted to hang it up in the dining room,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: you know.
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: Uh, no, no, when you when you're in there, when
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: you're in there, uh, you run into your neighbors because
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: they're the ones to work the calls. And they were
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: just catching up and they caught talking to me, and
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: somebody forgot.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: To keep it back.
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: And I didn't think about if my husband went at
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: four thirty and I have your driver's license. Oh it's
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: a small limit.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Well that was nice, and I'm glad you went. I'm
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: glad you felt as if you had something something worthy
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: of it. You see, I just I know these this
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: bond issue thing in Columbus. It's it'll pass because when
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: you know, when mayor gets their kids on TV and
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: says do this, so we can do it and it
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: won't raise your taxes, people go, oh, and then that's
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: good and the potholes will be fixed now. But you're
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: going to pay for it. And unfortunately voters just don't
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: inform themselves before they you know, take a commercial to
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: the polls with them.
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: Well, I can't vote in Columbus because I live in
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: a suburb, but I have to pay their taxes, so
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: I'm paying for it too. And I call him basement
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: handy because I didn't think anyone spent any more time
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: in the basement than Joe Biden.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: But I think half that's a new one. I appreciate you, Nancy,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: thank you very much for the encouragement. You know, I'm
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: very pro voting voting. If you look at my record,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: I rarely miss an election day. I don't do the
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: early voting. I'm not a fan of that. I'm not. Yeah,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: I just don't like it. I think we should vote
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: on election day if it means enough to you. You've
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: got from six thirty in the morning till seven thirty
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: in the evening. If it means enough to you before work,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: after work, during lunch, you can get there. Employers, you know,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: if you've got to need an extra half hour whatever
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: to go back to your polling place. You know, I
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: don't know. If an employer is good, we're not going
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: to pay you for that. Most of them don't want
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: the bad publicity. You could make it in thirteen hours,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: but people still, you know, find a reason not to.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: I try desperately to make sure that I always vote,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: and today I don't know. I just I'm kind of sad. Frankly.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: I think there's.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: Always a a romanticized like your vote always counts, and
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: technically it does, but the amount of effect it has
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: on whatever election you're in can be extremely minimal. And
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: I think that might be what you're going through right now.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean, it's I know, like, if CODA
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: puts a levee on, it's going to pass, right, And
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: I don't know why, honestly, how many buses, how many
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: buses do you see that are running empty? Where are
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: all of these people out there voting in favor of
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: a CODA levee? All the time the service is not used.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: You might have a morning rush, you might have an
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: afternoon after work rush, but you know, even that has
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: lesson because fewer people are now working in downtown Columbus.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Most offices have found someplace in the suburbs somewhere around
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: two seventy so all of those thousands of people that
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: used to go into downtown Columbus to work really don't anymore.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: You got a couple of banks and some government buildings,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: but that's about it. I have driven through downtown at
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: Broad and High at noon and you know, you're just
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: waiting for the tumbleweed to go by. It's sad. Again.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: We are the capital city of the state of Ohio.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: We just don't act like it. And to go vote
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: my conscience, my desire as a citizen, knowing that it
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: will be nullified by a bunch of yes men that
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: go out there and just vote for anything. It's called
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: a levy or a bond, They're going to vote yes.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: I'm out numbered. I know that. Why bother or again,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: maybe that's just me. Two eighty six my number, Barbara,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: you are on six Ton WTV at height.
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I've worked the elections. I have a pen from
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: working elections forty years. I haven't worked there for a
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: long time. But my theory is if I don't vote,
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: I can't complain, and man, do I like to complain
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: about things. And the other thing is you were mentioned
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: earlier voting a boy that hit my button and made
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: me call you. Think of the money that's wasted on
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: the early voting, all those people that are up there
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: working on that, when you could just have I mean,
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: you have a zillion people at the voting polls today working,
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: but you know for a months you pay for all
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: these people to work up there. They don't work for free.
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: And you know we could save the money and use
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: it for something much more worthwhile than what the money
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: gets spent on.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: I would almost And since you work, Barbara, you tell
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: me what you think of this. With a number of
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: volunteers and so forth, I would almost be in favor
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: of a twenty four hour voting day, so nobody has
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: any excuse, no matter what shift you work, when your
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: kids are in school or whatever else, twenty four hours,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: you know, noon to midnight or noon to noon the
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: next day. There it's done. No early voting, no none
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: of that, you know, casting your forty days ahead of time.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: The day of the election is the day that makes.
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: A lot of sense, because I mean, they would be
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: still spending a lot of money. Less people that work,
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: you know, double shifts in the long, long hours. They
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: would have time to get in there and vote. That
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: makes more sense than anything that the government people come
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: up with.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Let me tell you, Well, that's why I'm out here
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: and there in there.
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: I understand that part. Yeah, thanks, I remember. I remember,
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: you know, somebody threatening to shoot me because of the
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: way things run. So I call the security for the
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: building I was in, and then the police came and watched,
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: and the guy did come back, but he didn't come
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: in the building.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Where I was so threatening to shoot you as a poleworker.
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: Yep, Oh this was This was thirty thirty years ago
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: at least. Oh yes, I mean, just because they had
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: to wait. And then I remember at one time a
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: school teacher came in and she looked at the line
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: and she'd had to wait for one person. That was
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: too much. She couldn't wait. And then a new lady
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: who had just gotten her citizenship, she came up in
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: and voted, and she waited in line, but she was
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: dressed like she was going to meet the queen.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: She was just I mean wonderful.
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: Care was coughed and she had jewelry on and her
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: best Sunday clothes. I mean it was amazing.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: Sick that the teacher wouldn't vote, but the you know,
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: the new immigrant that appreciated our country was voting.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: I love that. And I've seen that myself, Barbara, thanks
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: for the call. I have seen that myself, where people
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: who are are here from somewhere else, at some other land,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: and they come here to the United States, and they
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: respect the process so much, they're so honored to be
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: a part of it that they walk in there and
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: there seriously, as she said that Sunday best. They are
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: so honored to have this opportunity to vote that they
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: take it very seriously. These days, you can't get somebody
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: to put on a necktie for a funeral. We were
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: better once upon a time, Yes, Virginia, we were. David standby,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: We've got you coming up next, room for you two
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: at a two one nine at eighty six a two
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: one WTV. And I have not been able to motivate
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: myself to go vote today. I live in Columbus proper.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: I just don't feel like it matters, not this time around,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: not this time and that makes me sad. It really
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: does