I m p ressio n s
Your Voice, Your Vote
by Dr. Stephen T. Radack III, Editor
I still remember when I was a young boy
sitting at the dining room table at my
grandparents’ home listening to the
adults discuss politics, especially when
there was a presidential election coming.
Looking back, I can’t help but feel bad for
my grandmother, who was the only staunch Republican among
the family of Democrats. She always stuck to her guns and
every one of them always made it a point to vote. They instilled
in my brothers and me how important it was to exercise your
right to vote no matter primary or general election and regardless
or whether it was for president or the mayor of the local town.
When I turned 18 years old, the first things I did were register
for the selective service and register to vote. That first general
election after that birthday in June I didn’t have the chance to
go to my local polling place because I was away at college, but
made sure I had an absentee ballot sent to me. I have either
voted in person or by absentee ballot in every election since,
the big ones and the small ones, the primaries and the generals.
When our daughters were growing up my wife and I would
take them to the polling place with us. I am not sure if those
trips and their dad’s passion for politics had anything to do
with them both registering at 18 and making a point to VOTE
in every election.
All of this about voting brings me to the heart of this editorial,
and that is the amazing opportunity each member of the
Pennsylvania Dental Association has to vote every year for
president-elect, and our delegation to the American Dental
Association House of Delegates. Every three years we have the
opportunity to vote for treasurer and every four years, our
ADA trustee. All every member needs to do to participate
and let their vote count is have a valid email address on
file with the PDA. If you do, you will receive an email with a
secure link to the ballot; you will cast your vote and then confirm
it via a second email. How much easier than that could it be?
Before the PDA governance was changed by the House of
Delegates in 2014, the elected delegates of the House were the
only PDA members who voted for our officers and ADA
delegation. That year there were 87 delegates in the House.
One of the most unique changes that occurred when the
House voted itself out of existence was that every member in
good standing would now be able to vote as long as PDA had
their email address. At that time I believe PDA was the only
constituent dental society in the tripartite of the ADA that voted
this way.
So how many of our members have taken advantage of this
new opportunity for their voice to be heard in selecting our
PDA leaders? Let’s take a look at each year. In 2015 there were
4,887 members in good standing on March 31, which was the
deadline to be able to vote. Of that 4,887 there were 3,250 that
had valid email addresses on file with PDA and were invited to
vote. That means 67 percent of the possible electorate that
inaugural year was given the opportunity to cast a ballot. The
final total of members who voted that year was 506, or 16
percent of those invited. Was that a good showing? I don’t know.
Personally I had expected more of our colleagues to vote.
I guess being the first year and the possibility that emails may
have gone to spam or just remained unopened, may have
affected the turnout. Could members just not have seen the
information that had been put out from PDA about the new
voting procedures? Maybe.
I was eager to see if the 2016 election would show some more
members became engaged and voted. That year there were
4,670 members in good standing on February 29 and 3,048
valid emails on file, which meant 65 percent of those members
were invited to vote. A total of 656 votes were cast, or 22
percent of the invited members, which is 6 percent higher than
the previous year. Now we were getting somewhere I thought.
The word had been out for a year and YOU were taking
advantage of the opportunity.
In the last two years the numbers were: 4,381 members in
good standing and 3,155 email addresses (72 percent) with 686
voting (22 percent) in 2017, and 4,389 members in good
standing and 3,053 email addresses (70 percent) with 490
voting (18 percent) in 2018. I found this a bit discouraging for
two reasons. One is the fact that more members had not
provided their email addresses to PDA. As we all know more
and more communication and information is being delivered
electronically. PDA has made a very conscious effort to not
overwhelm our “in boxes.” No one wants to see more “junk” or
“trash” via email less than I do, but I do prefer an email rather
than another piece of mail delivered to the office. The fact that
less people voted in 2018 than the two previous years is also
discouraging to me. I had been hopeful after looking at the
statistics of these first four years that we might at least hold at
the 22 percent and not drop almost to the level of that first year.
JAN UARY/FEBRUARY 2019 | P EN N SYLVAN IA DEN TAL JOURNAL
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