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Tuesday was a big day in Norton, Virginia's smallest city, an old mining town in the state's extreme southwest corner. Thousands of people -- more than half the population -- put aside their work and other obligations and came together to exercise their rights as free citizens.
Not to vote, though there was an election. Only 49 people in Norton bothered to cast a ballot for who will challenge Sen. George Allen this fall.
That was the lowest turnout of any jurisdiction in the commonwealth. Pretty much everyone else in this city of 4,000 was over at the Best Friend Festival, a week-long celebration featuring bubble-gum-blowing, watermelon-seed-spitting and limbo contests. That evening, the festival drew 2,000 people to express their fundamental right to karaoke.
Election? "I heard nobody mention it," says Joyce Payne, chief executive of the Chamber of Commerce, which organizes the annual festival. "I'm sure it was important to people who are very concerned about politics." If you can find such a person.
The search wouldn't be much easier outside Norton; statewide, only 3 percent of registered voters actually bestirred themselves to go to the polls.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/14/AR2006061402355.html:eyes:
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