Today is special election day, and community activists and the District’s political press are already ruing a discouragingly low turnout. The candidates for this at-large D.C. Council seat, of course, have been doing their darnedest to alert voters to their message, and get their base to the polls. And, thanks to the internet, more coverage of this election has been available than in previous regular primary or general elections. In addition to increased coverage made possible from blogs and websites of traditional media, sites like Greater Greater Washington, the Georgetown Dish, and the DCist’s Martin Austermuhle’s invaluable resource, Four 26, a blog entirely devoted this election, have offered engaged District voters the chance to be truly informed about their choices in this contest.

But one tradition in District electioneering has been notably scare this time around.  In fact, when I noticed the sign below on Park Rd., NW up on Mount Pleasant, it threw me.  With its gaudy color scheme, I mistook it for a sign advertising one of those “fly by night” easy money scams that blight some neighborhoods.  In D.C. elections past, I wouldn’t have found it out of the ordinary.  Historically, come D.C. election season, campaign posters from every candidate – even the less competitive contestants – hung from seemingly every street sign and lamppost across town.  (In 1993’s D.C. Council Chair special election, Vince Orange still plastered the District with posters after he was bounced from the ballot.)