To the editor:

Well, the election results are in, and the good citizens of Bainbridge Island have spoken. Or the 50 percent or so who bothered to exercise their privilege in a state that does everything short of sending a white-gloved county employee to your home.

No long lines, bad weather, or harassment at the polling site. No, here your ballot is delivered to you, weeks in advance, and you don’t even need a stamp to send it in.

Still too much bother for the good burghers of this Edenic Isle.

The island’s poor turnout is disgraceful in a month that we honor the sacrifices of our veterans, who in many cases paid with their bodies or their lives. It’s a disgrace in any month when you consider the sacrifices citizens in this country still make to vote, and a disgrace when you think about the hurdles people around the world endure. Citizens in the U.S. still face harassment and voter suppression, yet in this Isle of Privilege the Tesla-driving masses are too busy, distracted, bored, or disengaged to participate in one of the easiest voting states in the nation. There’s simply no other explanation.

Yet as I travel around this bubble of specialness — where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average — there is no shortage of opinion. The hotel is bad. Affordable housing is good, just not anywhere near me. And the city council is made up of fools and charlatans. This is what I hear.

But when it comes time to act as responsible citizens, give voice to their opinionated views, and participate in the process, half of this hermetically sealed paradise have, like Dick Cheney and Viet Nam, other priorities.

Disgraceful. Irresponsible. Without an excuse. And how can we lecture the benighted citizens in the rest of the county with turnout results like this?

JEFF BROWN

Bainbridge Island