News-Record.com

Of course, maybe I'm wrong and the highly partisan Guilford County Board of Commissioners really operates more effectively than do the city councils in Greensboro and High Point.

Yeah, right.

The low voter turnout last week -- 12 percent in Greensboro, 11 percent in High Point -- certainly was shameful. It's amazing that so many residents of the two cities didn't care to participate in the selection of local leaders whose decisions determine the level and quality of basic services like public safety, sanitation, water and sewer and transportation, and how much these services will cost taxpayers.

Shameful, but ultimately not important because other people did vote. And those votes were counted 100 percent. City council members were elected just as legally and legitimately with an 11 or 12 percent turnout as they would have been if everyone had voted.

These leaders can take satisfaction in knowing they were elected without attachment to any political party. They were elected to represent their constituents and not the interests of Republicans or Democrats. That gives them an independence that elected officials in partisan systems rarely possess.

County commissioners, state legislators and members of Congress who run under a party banner serve under that banner once they're in office. Sometimes you wonder whether they serve the people or the party. If they follow the party line, are they thinking for themselves? Are they listening to their constituents?

Sure, some break ranks sometimes -- and often they pay a price for it. Party discipline provides a powerful incentive to stay in line, particularly when it's enforced with financial support, the best committee assignments or other perks.

Why are Guilford County commissioners always so divided, even when members change over time? It's because they're split into two competing factions -- Democrats and Republicans -- from the moment they file to run for office. It's almost a matter of principle that one side can't cooperate with the other. That serves the public interest?

Maybe party politics spur more people to get out and vote. I don't know for sure that's true. It might be that more people vote in commissioners' elections because they’re held at the same time as state and national elections. Greensboro and High Point hold their elections in off years. If they changed their schedules, they'd draw greater voter participation.

But I'd leave them where they are. If that produces a meager voter turnout, I'm sorry. At the same time, I don't see the benefit of trying to attract the ignorant and uninterested.

If it would take partisan labels on the candidates to excite more voters, I say forget it. Who wants more people who vote only for the party rather than for the man or the woman?

I don't have much respect for someone who knows little or nothing about the candidates and simply chooses to vote for the Republicans or the Democrats. If that's all you know as a voter, stay home. Let voters who are better informed decide.

There are other reasons why nonpartisan elections are better, especially for local government offices. Police and fire protection, garbage collection, street maintenance, water and sewer service, parks and recreation aren't partisan issues. When a council is trying to decide where to build a new fire station, does there really have to be a Republican position and a Democratic position? There might be if that's how the council is divided.

Just as importantly, more and more voters are disassociating themselves from either party. Unaffiliated voters account for nearly 20 percent of registration in North Carolina, and the number is rising. Why should all those people want partisan elections at the local level?

By the way, it's still difficult in partisan elections for unaffiliated candidates to get on the ballot. Please don't discourage 20 percent of the electorate from attempting to run for local office by creating a partisan system. Democrats and Republicans might want to do that, but it wouldn't serve the public interest.

I think Kindley is wrong that voter turnout for municipal elections will continue to slip. A good, competitive mayor's race in Greensboro in 2007 will bring out more voters.

But party politics? Voters who are only interested in that can find somewhere else to play. Let's not confuse partisanship with the public interest.