What did yesterday's elections results tell us about this county?

They told us that if it ain't broke people won't vote to fix it.

No matter how hard Democrats, particularly county council candidate David Landau tried to convince voters that one-party county government was a corrupt failure, the voters didn't buy it.

Turn-out was very light. Some people would say it was awful. So many people neglecting their civic duty and staying home.

But it would be unfair to say that most of them stayed home. Actually most of them went to work, ran errands, took care of their children (many of whom were home from school due to an "in-service" day for teachers) and did other things they considered more important than voting in a local election.

Light voter turnout generally reflects voter satisfaction with the status quo.

As hard as Landau and the Democrats tried to rev them up to turn out the patronage ne're do-wells it didn't work. Perhap's because people's impressions didn't conform with the Dem's negative message.

In a state or national election, negativity often works because people don't actually know many people who actually know the candidates. The closer things get to home, the less aggressively negative campaigns work. They turn off more voters than they energize. And they can energize the wrong voters. That is to say, the opposition's voters.

The fact is, this county's government works pretty hard and pretty well with the notable exception of the county's computer/IT department.

During the campaign, Republican Christine Cannon opined that the county's web site is pathetic. That it needs to get easier to access and more user friendly. She's right. And last night proved her point. Computer clitches failed to get election results posted in a timely fashion. While every other county in the region was showing off their election results, our government web site was showing nothing but zeros until nearly 10 p.m.

Even while basking in this lop-sided victory, out-going county council chairman and Middletown GOP leader Andy Reilly expressed dismay at the failure of the county's IT system. So much so that he suggested heads could roll as a result.

We'll see.

In the meantime, the GOP continues it impressive string of winning county elections. Despite trending demographics. Despite general dissatisfaction with a Republican administration in Washington and despite recent Democratic wins in the county, the GOP rolled on. It was an impressive win for Reilly in particular who acted as campaign manager for three county council candidates.