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Thumbs up for those willing to serve. It’s always pride-inducing to see people step up and offer to serve their community through elected office. These are people who give of their time because they believe they can make a difference and add a voice to the direction of a community. So win or lose, congratulations to those who made a run into the primaries and best of luck for those who are on the ballot in November.

Thumbs down for low primary voter turnout. We’ve all commented or joked about how primaries reflect low voter turnout, but at the end of the day it’s still disappointing to see. According to census numbers in 2022, Austin’s population was over 26,000 and yet only 1,512 votes were cast in the mayoral race Tuesday. In the Ward 1 race just 459 votes were cast and in the Ward 3 race only 412 votes were cast. That is leaving a lot of votes on the table and taking a lot of voices out of the equation. Regardless of the fact that primaries only whittle down the field to two, it carries no less weight in determining the future.

Thumbs up for serving the district. The Austin Schools Board race will have a full docket come this November with five filing to run in the regular election and another two vying for a special election to fill Kathy Green’s seat as she sets to retire from the board this year.

Thumbs up to brotherly love. The story we ran earlier this week regarding Jed Dudycha donating his kidney to his brother Jeremy reflected not just a heart-warming tale but demonstrated a true family caring. It’s a big decision to donate and nobody takes it lightly. In a day and age that’s often punctuated by vehemence, it’s nice to hear these kinds of stories.

Thumbs up for combining programs. With the start of fall practices comes the dawn of a new team as the LeRoy-Ostrander and Lyle-Pacelli football teams have joined to create one team. This is about opportunity, as the L-P squad was looking at another year of playing nothing but JV football because of the team consisting of mostly younger players. Sports, above all else, should be about opportunity and fun and this consolidation will provide both of those.