What if they held an election and no one voted?

The federal election last November left a vacancy on the Fairfax County (Virginia) Board of Supervisors. Gerry Connolly, the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, forcing him to resign from the Board of Supervisors. Yesterday, Fairfax County had a special election to fill his seat as Chairman.

In a county with over 1 million residents and about 680,000 registered voters, only 107,713 votes were cast (according to unofficial results). The county is facing a significant budget shortfall, we have transportation problems galore, as well as a host of other important issues for the Board of Supervisors to address. Even so, only 16% of the registered voters could be bothered to help choose the Board's next leader. How pathetic...