Move city elections? I say no
High Point City Council will ask for special legislation moving municipal elections to even-numbered years.
The council should be careful what it asks for.
The purpose of this proposal is to increase voter turnout for City Council races, which plummeted to 11 percent last year.
The same concern applies to Greensboro, where a similar turnout was recorded in November.
Move city elections to years like 2006 and 2008, when more people take an interest in voting?
I agree that more people do vote in those years, especially when the presidential contest heads the ballot.
But that in no way means that more people would take an interest in voting for City Council candidates.
Voters' attention is unfortunately limited. With a long ballot of higher-profile candidates -- for president, U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, governor, lieutenant governor, Council of State offices, state legislative seats, sheriff, county commissioners, school board -- the mayor and council candidates likely would be lost. They'd certainly get less media coverage, they'd have to compete with many more candidates for campaign contributions and they might have fewer opportunities for meaningful dialogue with voters.
I'd be more inclined to move other local races, such as sheriff, commissioners and school board, to the odd-numbered years with municipal elections.
I'm also more open-minded to the idea of extending City Council terms to four years. I've strongly opposed that in the past, but maybe voters would take more notice if the elections took place less often.
More people should vote in city elections. This is the level of government where they can exert the most influence, and where services provided have a direct impact on their lives.
But there's really no excuse for their failure. I don't favor moving these elections to a time when more people come out to vote for other races, because those voters know less about the city candidates and issues than do the 11 percent or so who vote in odd-numbered years.
Holding a city election at the same time as the presidential, gubernatorial and other big elections in 2008 will produce more votes, but many of them will be ill-informed and largely disinterested voters.
Comments (4)
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I agree with you on all points Doug. Especially on moving all county and city elections to the same ballot. In this way all the attention in the media can be given to the local area rather than having to compete with the national issues so no one really pays much attention to the local elections and just votes for the most well known name. This is how we keep people like Grier in office when he obviouly should have been ousted years ago.
Posted on March 7, 2006 12:05 PM
The Republicans would love your odd year election recommendation for city as well as county positions. Low voter turnout typically favors that party. They especially like it when the forecast calls for rain on election day. See, they can afford umbrellas & overcoats, whereas the Democrats are scared they'll melt.
I don't think it would improve turnout that much by consolidating local elections at all, of course, unless there was a dynamic issue/personality on the ballot. For all intents and purposes, the national elections pull the voters out, though our voter participation at the local level is just as important.
I'm embarrassed to tell this, but will anyway. I showed up at our polling station last November 2005, walked in, nobody there but the janitor and then realized the County elections are on even years. My desire to be a good civic minded citizen sometimes astonishes me. Of course, my wife thought I was ..... Well I'll stop there.
Posted on March 7, 2006 3:58 PM
Brenda,
Grier is not "in office". He is not an elected public official. He is an employee of Guilford County.
Posted on March 9, 2006 12:14 AM
Major Correction, I am sorry and stand corrected. Thank you! There again in most of the many places I have lived (military wife) the Superintendent of Schools has been an elected official and so I just assumed Grier was also. Now I have a better understanding why the people are so disgruntled with him and yet he stays on. I was wondering why he kept "winning" reelection!
Posted on March 9, 2006 11:15 AM