Water board elections are upon us and every year we have people call us with a lot of questions. What looks like a ballot with your water bill is not a ballot. It is a proxy. Basically, if you sign your proxy and bring it to the water department or mail it – you are giving away your vote to the board member you select. To actually vote, you need to show up at the Holley Navarre Water System on Jan. 19 between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. and vote in person. You cannot phone it in or consider that ballot an absentee ballot – because it isn’t. It is very confusing and has been for more than 20 years. However, several board members felt that it was more confusing to make this an absentee ballot or a directed proxy – where you could vote for whomever you wanted to vote for without showing up on Jan. 19.  Let’s just say Daryl Lynchard and Troy Bossier considers you – to be smart enough to handle a change for the better. The others – think you can’t handle it. So, the board pushed it off to next year – again. There is still no mechanism in place to prove the person who gave away their proxy is in fact the correct individual and a bonafide HNWS member and has the right to assign the proxy. Though they discussed adding safeguards to the process, what is redundant is that you or someone else not authorized repeatedly gives their vote away.