Citizens use social media to speak out

SATSUMA, Ala. (WALA) - The citizens of one small town in Mobile County are turning to Facebook to let their voices be heard this election year.

With the city’s municipal election coming up on August 28, small town politics are generating a big buzz in Satsuma this election year.

Many are going online to talk about politics and anything else that affects their city. After only a couple of weeks, hundreds of people have joined a new Facebook page called “Voices of Satsuma”.

Mary Helterbrand came up with the idea after she says the city stopped allowing comments on its Facebook group page.

"The people have a voice and they deserve answers. So I think just really making them aware of what's going on with the candidates, and then making an educated guess, not a popularity guess," Helterbrand said.

Even Helterbrand was shocked by how quickly the page caught on. In less there two weeks more than 400 people have joined the group, including Heather Enzor.

"It's pretty nice to have young voices as well as older people to speak out about what's going on, stuff that I never knew about that's going on in the city. So it's very interesting," Enzor said.

Kathy Stubbs posted a comment about the overgrown grass around the tower near the school track. She's hoping the post will get as quick a response as an earlier comment she made about the candidates door-to-door campaigning.

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"I had voiced on there that I had not seen any candidates on our side of the highway, and yesterday I had three. So they're responding? Oh yes and that's exactly what they told me that they had read it on that little website," Stubbs said.

Stubbs is glad to see so many people joining the Voices of Satsuma group.

"In small town politics, I'll have to quote Mary Atchison on this. It's wonderful, we all have our own opinions, we're all going to vote for who we want to vote for, but in the end we're all still neighbors," she said.