Voter turnout not so super for Super Tuesday

Stillwater’s mayor election drew a whopping 4,863 voters, most of them showing up to elect Councilor John Bartley to become the city’s next mayor.
Bartley indeed won big, with more than 81 percent of votes cast. But Bartley’s 3,968 votes represent only a tiny sliver of the voter pie in Stillwater, Okla.
With 22,978 registered voters in Stillwater, that means Bartley was elected by less than 18 percent of registered voters. That’s a sad commentary on our population’s use of the rights we have. I suppose having the right to vote means also having the right to not vote.
I will be interested to hear someone explain that position to the Stillwater soldiers coming home from Afghanistan in the coming weeks. They just spent the past year away from family -- and fighting terrorism. Most of Stillwater just spent election day doing anything but voting.
Thank you to our military men and women who put my freedoms ahead of their own lives. I voted today. You didn’t tell me how to vote. You simply stepped up to defend our way of life so that I could.