Why can't we vote for ALL the commissioners?  They vote on issues that affect the whole county, why should they all not be held accountable to the entire county? That and the elections being partisan.  You have to decide which races are more important to you and declare a party based on that.  Not a good way to conduct a local election, I say, and a source of voter-turnoff.

Gives new meaning to the words "Volunteer State". It cost over $14 per vote for Mayor Ragsdale. He better start raising money, at that rate it will take 14 million dollars to run for Governor.

With a 14% turnout only one word can sum up Knox County. Sheepville.

A couple of points from the world of political science on the matter of electing commissioners at large where all or at least a number of commissioners run county wide. Personally, I like at least some degree of “at large” rather than pure district representation in a local body such as is the case with the City of Knoxville, but here is a bit of background that might be helpful. As is usually the case, all is not as it appears and if you don't like turnout now, such a change is not likely to make you very happy.

Research clearly shows that at large representation tends to inhibit turnout rather than to increase it. There are many reasons for this but the most obvious is that many voters (or nonvoters) feel that nobody in such a system represents their neighborhood, area, or group. Minorities, especially, feel disenfranchised because they are not able to elect their preferred candidate because the citywide majorities in fact choose a disproportionate number of representatives. At large representation is a product of the urban reform movement of early in the last century. Other elements of the movement were nonpartisan elections and the city manager form of government. The idea was simple…take the “politics” out of local government so it can be run in a more professional, businesslike manner with representatives looking to the interest of the citizens as a whole rather than that of various groups. That turned out to be a rather naïve viewpoint that functioned well in smaller homogeneous communities but was problematic at best in larger, diverse settings..

The result was the fewer folks voted, governments did pursue somewhat different policies from those they would otherwise have pursued (my dissertation, for what it is worth), and, that minorities tended to be under represented, especially in more diverse communities. This last factor led to provisions under the Voting Rights Act and many lawsuits followed in which African American plaintiffs were successful in securing charter changes such that the new form of government had little or no at large representation. Such was the case in Chattanooga and in Memphis where the finding was that there was minority vote dilution under at large voting schemes. In some cities African Americans made up 35% or more of the population with councils and commissions that had very low, if any, minority representation. If somehow a movement were to be launched to institute at large voting for the Knox County commission (against present state law which enables home rule counties, I believe) such a system would soon be buried under an avalanche of legal action. The city’s system has not been challenged because the proportion of African American representation on Council (1 out of 9) is not that out of line with the proportion in the city and, more importantly, there is no evidence that the candidates preferred by the majority of African Americans are systematically defeated by the candidates preferred by the majority of whites. That, in fact, is the legal test under the relevant Supreme Court Case (Gingles vs. North Carolina, for the obsessed.)

I know, more than you wanted to know.

Bill Lyons

Well, then, how about a weighted vote for commission?  Weight of 1.0 for your district rep and 0.5 for other commissioners.  I am sure the computers can easily sort it out.  This would keep them honest and more accountable to the voters than the developers, which is the way it is skewed now.

In the recent New Orleans election, with many people not even living there anymore, they got a 37 percent voter turnout.