To the editor:

Indeed voter turnout is not the pride of Lawrence.

But to say the leading candidate for City Commission received only 20.6 percent is misleading. In fact, no one could receive more than 33.3 percent if all voters cast three votes and one received votes from all residents who came to the polls. There were 14,618 ballots cast in city and school board voting and Mr. Dever received 7,349 votes or 50.2 percent (and not all the 14,618 were inside the city to vote on City Commission). The percentages for the others were 46.5 percent for Rob Chestnut and 42.4 percent for Boog Highberger. These percentage would be higher, if I knew how many of the 14,618 ballots were not voting for City Commission.

The same critique is merited for school board reports. Scott Morgan received 7,865 votes or 53.8 percent. Percentages for the other winners would be: Rich Minder 38.7 percent, Mary Loveland 37.2 percent and Marlene Merrill 35.0 percent.

American voting is nothing to brag about, but this reporting diminishes it unnecessarily.

Let me also express my preference for the tabular format for reporting votes by precincts. I choose not to go across the many reports to find more specific results. The old way was better.

Donald Conrad, Lawrence