How Much Does Local Government Matter To You?

How do you feel about local government: your town council, your county legislature, your village officials? The number of voters who turned out in recent elections suggests fewer people care about local levels of government than the national scope of politics. For instance:

• When Brookhaven Town Supervisor Mark Lesko re-ran for his post in 2011, 70,293 people voted out of a total of 281,592 registered voters in the town, for a turnout of about 25 percent. The race for town council, in which Steve Fiore-Rosenfeld was re-elected, saw a turnout of about 28.5 percent.

• When Kara Hahn and Anthony Moncayo faced off for the Fifth Legislative District seat in the Suffolk County Legislature, 13,668 out of 49,035 turned out at the polls, or about 28 percent.

• Compare that to a voter turnout of about 75 percent during the last presidential election in 2008: 695,403 ballots cast out of 877,102 registered voters in Suffolk County.

If fewer voters are turning out for the most local level of government, does that mean fewer people are concerned about it? What's your take on local government: how much does it matter to you? Log in to Patch and tell us in the comments.