If we keep bickering about what percentage of the shrinking piece of the pie our candidate won or did not win, we will continue to see the number of voters (those who actually cast a ballot) in city elections dwindle until it is just the handful of us, including yours truly, diehard pundits, casting the votes in Lakewood City elections. Here are some daunting rough numbers.

Population: 146,000

Eligible voters: 105,000(100% of eligible)

Registered voters: 67,000(64% of eligible)

Votes cast 2007 26,900(26% of eligible)

Votes for Murphy 13,138(13% of eligible)

Votes for Bertolli 12,151(12% of eligible)

Votes for Delay 1,240(1% of eligible)

Sources: Census numbers 2000 & 2005 (DRCOG), City website demographics and County records for registered voters in 2001. This mix-n-match of numbers is just to 'directionally' make a point.

My point is this: those of us active in the process no matter which candidate you support, hopefully would agree that having only two-thirds of the eligible voters registered IS NOT ENOUGH; having only one-fourth of eligible voters cast ballots IS NOT ENOUGH; having slightly more than one-eighth of eligible voters decide who the next mayor is, IS NOT ENOUGH. Now I'll admit, out of necessity, like it or not, the system has to work this way where a minority of the eligible AND registered voters decides for the whole. Bob Murphy was elected Mayor of a city with 146,000 residents, not a city with 13,138 residents.

I don't know about the rest of you but my energy is limited. Instead of wasting that energy on what has happened in the past, I choose to, and why don't we join forces and go about changing the very sad numbers above. Let's start with the 36% who are eligible BUT NOT REGISTERED to vote. Once we move the dial on that number then let's work on those who are registered and DID NOT TAKE THE TIME TO VOTE! Anyone interested?