But who's counting?

How do you feel about losing?

Does the word itself make something deep down inside of your core start to curl up like a piece of construction paper when it’s hit with wet glue? Does the skin on your face suddenly feel like it’s been stretched tight? Are your cheeks getting warm and your hands getting clammy? Can you picture a giant “L” painted on your forehead?

Good.

Here’s your chance to do something about it.

Sullivan County is losing at voting. The final score is embarrassing.

In every presidential election since 2012, Sullivan County’s voter participation rate has been lower than the national average. The gap has shrunk, from 7 points in 2012 to 2 points in 2024, but don’t order the trophies just yet.

Between 2020 and 2024, the national rate slid from 62 percent to 58 percent, and we slid from 57 to 56. Much of that closing gap came from the rest of the country coming down to meet us, not from us climbing out of the hole.

How’s that pit in your stomach feeling now? Is your face getting flushed? I’m afraid I’m not done.

When you compare us with the other counties in the Mid-Hudson Valley region, the giant “L” painted on our foreheads starts blinking like a neon sign.

In every election since 2010, presidential and midterm alike, Sullivan County has posted the lowest voter participation rate in the Mid-Hudson Valley. Not once have we been able to dig ourselves out of last place, and the gap has grown.

In 2010, we trailed the regional average by 3 points. In 2024, it was 7.

That year, the leading counties in the region were Columbia and Putnam, which both hit 71 percent voter participation while Sullivan reached 56 percent. For those who are doing the math, that’s a 15-point gap.

Meanwhile, we have the highest rates of child poverty and teen pregnancy and the lowest median household income and prenatal care in the first trimester of any county in the region. We have the highest rate of diabetes hospitalizations and highest mortality rates of chronic lower respiratory disease and cardiovascular disease in the region.

Sullivan County has clearly gotten really good at losing.

But this isn’t a game, and the people who sit out on Election Day don’t get to skip the consequences.

The folks deciding how much money is funneled into public health efforts and which roads get paved will be chosen by the people who show up. In 2024, that was 56 out of every 100 of us, the grown-ups of Sullivan County.

The polls are open until 9 p.m. today.

I hear those little “I Voted” stickers are just about the right size to cover an L.