Whether it’s national politics or local news, people on Whidbey Island are clearly engaged.
Just this week, the Secretary of State released statistics that show a higher percentage of Island County voters returning ballots for the presidential primary compared to all the other counties in the state.
They voted despite the fact that Washington’s presidential primary won’t get a lot of headlines. Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican candidate, so the results probably don’t make much of a difference to him.
On the Democratic side, the results are merely symbolic since delegates were chosen by a caucus earlier this year.
Nevertheless, people want to ensure their voices heard and their ballots counted, and we applaud that thinking.
Island County’s election supervisor said she wasn’t surprised by the numbers since voters in the county have consistently been among the most active in the state.
The same is true on the local scene. People pay attention.
As the old saying goes, all politics is local.
There are many examples. When the Oak Harbor City Council recently debated whether or not to build a community room as part of the sewage treatment plant, people on both sides of the issue educated themselves and spoke up.
One Oak Harbor councilwoman recently said she received a large number of comments about a developer’s plan to cut down a Garry oak tree, reported in an article published in the Whidbey News-Times.
A local newspaper is a great gauge of community involvement. Like many newspapers, more people than ever before are reading News-Times articles, but just in a different way.
You need only look on the newspaper’s editorial page to see just how engaged Whidbey residents are. On a regular basis, our Opinion pages are filled with letters from writers who are informed well enough to voice their thoughts on a variety of issues.
And a story about car accident or a weird crime may have thousands of reader views online. An article about a sewage treatment plant in Oak Harbor may have more readers than there are residents in the city.
And people have opinions. The newspaper’s Facebook page has an active community of people who offer opinions or ask questions.
We appreciate and encourage such engaged readers. It’s healthy for our community and ensures that a public dialogue continues.
