Every vote in an election matters.
For Lisbon’s School Board race in this past election, with two candidates running for a write-in spot, the margin between the two candidates could be as razor thin as a single vote. Robyn Aaron had 104 total write-in votes in the election, while John Baker had 99, plus three for Baker and one for J. Baker.
The other big takeaway from the election – Mount Vernon and Lisbon citizens are engaged. For Mount Vernon 1 and 2 and Franklin township, turnout in the election surpassed the statewide average of 16.68 percent. Mount Vernon 1 was at 35 percent overall, and Mount Vernon 2 25.67 percent. That is more than one third to one quarter of the population who came out to vote for the school board candidates. Both those precincts surpassed the turnout in the general and school elections in both 2019 and 2021. Franklin Township most likely surpassed 2019’s turnout, which was noted as under 20 percent, but didn’t get to the 25 percent of 2021’s election.
As was noted by the Mount Vernon-Lisbon chapter of the League of Women Voters, more than 200 people attended the community forum for the school board election on a Wednesday night preceding the election.
To all of those who ran for seats on school boards, thank you. You gave us all candidates to choose from. Many of the items identified as areas you wanted to champion in the community are still going to need citizen help and engagement that we encourage you to continue to provide.