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Realigning local elections with state and national elections?
Submitted by R. Neal on Wed, 2008/01/30 - 9:39am.
There has been discussion about realigning local elections with state and national elections which traditionally have higher turnout, the idea being that it would increase participation in local elections.
Arguments against the idea are that the state and national races would overshadow local elections would distract from local issues, ballots would be longer and more complicated, it would be harder for the media to cover local races, and local candidates would have to compete with better funded state and national campaigns for limited TV and radio advertising inventory, driving up the cost for everyone.
Owing to the term limits court ruling, Knox County is forced into holding a county primary for nearly every elected office at the same time as the presidential primary.
Has it distracted from the local races? Have candidates had any problems getting media coverage or buying advertising? Is the ballot any more complicated? Will what appears to be higher, possibly record turnout translate into more voter participation down the ballot, and will the voters be informed on local candidates and issues or just randomly pick names they recognize? (And I'm talking about the "average" voter, not political junkies who read blogs and are plugged in to the process.)
What's annoying to me about the way it is now, is that I had to choose to vote in the Republican primary so I could vote (against) local Republican candidates but then was forced to vote only for Republican presidential candidates. On the other hand, there's the cost of a separate election.
Knox County elections are decided by fundraising, name recognition and yardsigns. None of this should matter in an actual democracy, but having to compete with a national election for money and attention can only make it worse. The cost of an election cycle is pretty cheap compared to bad government.
i would not have staggered terms
in the city when the mayors up all of council & the judge is up
in the county when the sheriffs up everybodys up
What's annoying to me about the way it is now, is that I had to choose to vote in the Republican primary so I could vote (against) local Republican candidates but then was forced to vote only for Republican presidential candidates. On the other hand, there's the cost of a separate election.
Knox County elections are decided by fundraising, name recognition and yardsigns. None of this should matter in an actual democracy, but having to compete with a national election for money and attention can only make it worse. The cost of an election cycle is pretty cheap compared to bad government.
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