Very important: please go vote tomorrow. I’m a republican so my endorsements remain: Way, Wolfe & Lovejoy.
I was watching TV this morning and there was a commerecial with Andrea Mitchell saying something along the lines of “the only goal in elections should be to get as many people to vote as possible. When the American people are engaged, the right decisions get made”.
This sort of “vote at any cost” mantra gives me heartburn. Not so much on the Federal level, there’s almost too much coverage of the Federal system. The eternal campaign for president ensures coverage of a – “We’ve always been at war with Eastasia” sort of deal. It never ends. However, information at the State and local level is far more difficult to come by. The WaPo stops by when they smell blood in the water and the JM sends a reporter when there isn’t really anything else going on anywhere else.
When I was in Front Royal several weeks ago, I went for a run the morning after we had dinner in the Old Town part of Front Royal. On my way back, I ran into an older woman who was putting campaign signs in. I inquired as to whether she was the candidate and she responded that she was indeed running for office. Turns out her big issue was to move town elections to November. She asked what I thought. I told her I didn’t think much of the idea.
My concern, as I alluded to above, is that the local issues just get lost in the mix. I think some level of focus on local issue in May elections is no bad thing. What do you guys think?
Update: no, it isn’t me. don’t ask b/c I don’t know.
April 30, 2012 at 8:50 pm
I am shocked at the limited number of people who even realize there is an election tomorrow.
May 1, 2012 at 7:26 am
I was just thinking how inconvenient that the election was in the middle of the budget process. I hadn’t thought about why it wasn’t in the fall. That makes sense also.
May 1, 2012 at 7:31 am
Weird to have absentee voting for the June primary already open…when we’re voting today for local office.
May 1, 2012 at 7:35 am
It makes a lot of sense to keep these elections where they are, so the swearing-in begins at the beginning of the fiscal year, July 1, so new Council Members learn the ropes at the beginning of a budget cycle not in the middle. Also makes sense for the School Board, too, so they have a couple months before the beginning of the school year.
To move to November would be a mistake. You would get more voters to cast votes but they would be less educated about the local elections because of all the “noise” of State and Federal elections. It’s better for the process to have votes of those who know and care about local issues than uneducated votes. The decisions of our City elected officials have greater impact than those of the State and those in Washington.
May 1, 2012 at 10:17 am
Have to agree media attention for the election has been poor.
Watching our local paper over the past year has been like watching
an old friend slowly die. Monday – no paper, today – a defacto shopper.
The May or November local election issue has been debated across
the Commonwealth with mixed results. Manassas Park, for example,
moved to November. Falls Church moved to November and now wants
to go back to May. As an Independent, I, of course, favor May elections
for Manassas.
A Manassas Journal-Messenger editorial years ago observed:
“Remember, if you are one of the 10% who normally vote in
a Manassas Town election, you are voting for 10 people.
Vote with care.”
May 1, 2012 at 2:26 pm
Falls Church is an interesting case, because the City Council there actually voted against moving the local elections to November by ordinance (the more common method of making the change), after which a group of citizens took up the issue by circulating a petition for referendum in a special election. After citizens collected the number of signatures required to put the issue on the ballot, the referendum to move the date of local elections from May to November was approved by voters.
Falls Church is even more interesting in that its local elections are non-partisan, meaning that candidates for local offices are not determined by any party mechanism (primary, convention, etc) and can qualify for the ballot by petition only. This approach was intended to address the concern that traditionally local issue-oriented elections had become vulnerable to co-optation by the broader, more ideological and potentially more divisive agendas of the national and/or state political parties (alas, Manassas has seen plenty of that of late).
Most Virginia cities have already moved their elections from May to the general election in November (either in odd or even years). Charlottesville conducted an informal survey of a number of Mayors and general registrars in cities that made the change, and the majority of those surveyed indicated that making the change had favorable results both in terms of saving money and in terms of improved voter turn-out. There is reams of good information and much detailed analysis of the issue available from the many municipalities that already made the change.
Steve – How would you feel about November elections if they were non-partisan, like in Falls Church? I won’t put Andy on the spot for an answer to the same question 🙂
May 1, 2012 at 4:50 pm
http://lwvfallschurch.org/files/may_or_november_fact_sheet-final.pdf
Steve, an informative pro/con fact sheet from the Falls Church League
of Women Voters notes another crucial issue for Independents – money.
It might well cost more – perhaps much more to run for local office.
And, unlike Falls Church, we sadly gave up most of our nonpartisan tradition
years ago except, of course, for the school board. Straight ticket party voting
would be another challenge to overcome for Independents.
May 2, 2012 at 6:29 pm
Steve –
I very much appreciate your thoughts and perspective.
I had seen the info from the Falls Church League of Women Voters, but when I went back to take a look at my research on this topic I found that I erred when I said that the mayor of Charlottesville had conducted a survey of mayors of Virginia localities that had already made the change from May to November elections. Actually, it was Mayor Rordam of Blacksburg who had done so.
At the time that Mayor Rordam surveyed the other mayors (late 2007), 19 Virginia towns and cities had moved their local elections. He received responses from seven of them – Bridgewater, Charlottesville, Gordonsville, Lexington, Manassas Park, Norton and Poquoson. Charlottesville had switched to November in odd-numbered years, while the rest had switched to November in even-numbered years (Charlottesville had not yet held their first election on the new schedule at the time of the survey).
The following questions were posed:
Q – Did elections become more partisan?
A – four of the six localities with elections in even-numbered years replied to this question. All said no.
Q – Were elections more expensive for candidates?
A – four of the six localities that had held elections replied; two thought it was more expensive. All noted that that holding elections in November saved the municipality money.
Q – Were local issues overshadowed and did voters have a hard time distinguishing between national and local issues?
A – five of the six localities with elections in even-numbered years responded. None thought that national issues overshadowed local issues.
Additional comments made by the seven mayors who responded to Mayor Rordam:
1. All said they changed to November elections to increase voter participation in local elections. Those voting in November of even-numbered years all reported major increases in voter participation;
2. Three of six mayors who had already experienced an election on the new cycle volunteered that a larger turn-out of voters diminished the impact of “small splinter groups” on election results;
3. Bridgewater continued to be enthusiastic about holding elections in November of even-numbered years, and said local issues are never overshadowed.
I’ve reviewed detailed information, analysis and feedback from the State Board of Elections, as well as from Alexandria, Bedford, Buena Vista, Blacksburg, Charlottesville, Christiansburg, Colonial Heights, Emporia, Falls Church, Harrisonburg, Hopewell, Leesburg, Lexington, Manassas Park, Martinsville, Norton, Petersburg, Poquoson, Portsmouth, Richmond, Suffolk, Winchester and Virginia Beach. All determined that the positive impacts of making the change outweighed the negatives, and the vast majority of those localities instituted the change via ordinance. Though, in some cases the change was made after referendum, initiated either by local councils or by citizen petition.
Andy – what do you think?