I went to vote today. At noon, only 172 people had voted at my precinct which is what you would expect in the first half-hour during a presidential election. Part of the problem is that there aren’t any sexy races on the ballot. You can see my sample ballot here (.pdf). You can see that the Democrats don’t even have a full slate of candidates. I was the 24th Democrat to vote from my book. There are three books for both parties, broken down alphabetically. Assuming that the other two Democratic books had a similar number of voters recorded, the party breakdown would have been 100 Republicans and 72 Democrats.
When the lady volunteer handed me my ballot and told me I was voter 24, I gasped. She laughed and told me that the Democrats were not having a good day.
This seems to always be the case with these low profile primary elections. Obama actually won my precinct in 2008. Then, in the 2009 primary elections, GOP voters outnumbered Dems nearly two-to-one. If you want to know why we have wingnuts on all our school boards, this is why. Dems don’t show up to vote.
If you want to know why we have wingnuts on all our school boards, this is why. Dems don’t show up to vote.
Why do all the school board and other races all happen in non-Presidential years? More of those races seem to happen in off years,and it hurts Democrats. And why doesn’t the party do anything about that?
I think the theory is that the high profile races would divert all attention from the local races.
Well, one thing is obvious. It is a lot easier and cheaper to get 200 votes than 600 or 1800. So, running for school board today when 200 votes will win you the election is preferable to on presidential election day.
Could be a factor. But I think the low turnout is due to apathy. Most people have strong opinions on the schools. Most people do not know who is on the school board. Most people do not know who is running for the school board or what their platform is. It’s hard to find out. I try, it’s hard. Most people don’t bother. They either don’t vote or choose randomly from the unknown names presented to them on the ballot. I don’t understand why someone would take the time to vote without having the foggiest idea who they were voting for. It would be better if the races were partisan. Then, at least, those voters would have some reason to select a candidate.
But we have drifted afield. The question was the motive for placing races in the off years.
There is good and bad about that. At any rate, do you know what turn out was in this area? 10%, give or take.
I hear you and I wonder if any electoral reforms are possible to increase turnout. Of course, as you point out, low numbers benefit Republicans so they have no motive to improve turnout. In fact, as we all know, they suppress it. (One of the first political battles I remember vividly is how hysterically the right fought Clinton’s “Motor Votor” laws and things like that. It just never made sense — it would seem the mere fact that they don’t want people to vote could be used as an effective cudgel against the GOP!)
But I am curious if you (or any readers) have positive ideas for reforming our system which could improve participation and interest. It seems the office-holders closest to us, over whom we could potentially have the most influence (school board, city council, mayor) generate the least interest! It seems to me there should be a lot of free TV airtime given over to discussing local issues of significance.
I actually have to go vote for mayor right now… The choices on my ballot are between a good ol’ boy Southern conservative who seems to want more religion in politics and a reasonable-sounding black man who once worked in the Clinton administration. I do not have high hopes (mostly because the right-winger clearly outspent team left) but the turnout so far has been reported in favor of Dems. We’ll see 🙂
i voted. I’m hoping Street wins, just for the sheer comedy.
I’m helping to run a city council campaign this year, and we face two impediments that are so obvious to local politicos they’re not even worth discussing.
This first is that a few years ago our (Democratic-controlled) state legislature moved the primary to the dead of summer. This was ostensibly to give more time for close races to be recounted before the general, which generally benefits Dems – but for that rare benefit, we got a primary during the one time of year around here when the weather is good and people are vacating, off playing in the woods, mountains, beach, paying attention to anything but politics. Especially in the odd (local election) years, turnout has plummeted for the primaries, despite all-mail elections.
The second problem is that local elections get almost zero coverage on local TV. Sure, the local daily paper (which few people under age 60 read any longer) still covers it, as do some specialty blogs, but most people hear next to nothing about races for city council, school board, etc. The depressing result is a rash of former media stars (TV anchors, newspaper columnists, and the like) getting local office based solely on name ID. In more than a few cases they’re dreadful at their new jobs – lazy, uninformed, profoundly ignorant tools – and everyone inside local politics knows it, but nobody on the outside does. Who’s going to spill the beans – their former colleagues? Their current ones?
Being inside a campaign is simultaneously inspiring and depressing. Inspiring, because of all the people you meet (regardless of ideology) who are busting their butts, often without pay, to make a difference. Depressing, because most other people don’t know and could not care less about what they do.
no elections today.
but, I vote in every single election. my parents were fanatical about it (they both grew up in the Jim Crow South, and if they hadn’t of left there, would have been nearly middle-aged before they would have been able to vote in the states of their birth without living under a threat to them)
I just got home from polling place duty outside my precinct. I’m in your county and my experience was very similar. We ended up with 75 D’s voting out of 343 registered.
For the first time I can remember, there were no people at all waiting in line for the polls to open, so I was D number 1.
I hope you at least voted for the two real Democrats for Common Pleas.
This is something I never fully understood about American elections. The need to have seemingly every public office be an elected one. Electing sheriffs, judges, registrars of wills, deeds, etc., this all seems like a waste of energy.
Yep, one of the things i agree with Yglesias about.
Easy fix: make it so no one has to show up to vote. Mail in ballots for all, like Oregon. It eliminates the voter ID issue, too. I have “permanent absentee” status in California, so I get a mail-in ballot for every election even though I am not an absentee.