When we have a local only election (city and county offices) we get about 10% turnout. I think that is not unusual around the US. Why do so few people vote for these offices? Local guys can have a big impact on your life and your kids life through the school board. Is it really that hard to vote?
I guess people are afraid they might miss Survivor or Dancing With the Stars so they don’t take 5 minutes to vote.
I think there’s a lot of reasons but one is that while local officials can impact your life, there’s often not a lot of difference between the candidates - much less than at a state or national level. I live in a 1 party town - local elections are decided in the primary election where we decide which Democrats are going to win in November. Sometimes the Republican party runs candidates but they’re just some crackpots who decided to waste some money.
So we have to decide which Democrat we want to elect, but they all have pretty much the same plans so it’s all about personality. Except these are people who are willing to be elected local officials so almost by definition you know their personalities are awful.
So even if you care about local issues, your vote won’t make too big a difference, at least in many cities and larger towns.
In state and national elections, you can still maintain some idealism. In local elections, you know the candidates. Hard to be idealistic then.
The run up to statewide and national elections is full of information about the candidates coming at you constantly. Debates, news stories, press conferences, polling reports, etc. On the other hand, unless you’re actively searching for it, you’re unlikely to have a clue as to who’s running for municipal offices, county boards, district boards, etc. So people don’t feel involved or knowledgeable enough to go vote.
I’ll admit that this is largely the fault of the non-voter who didn’t seek out this info (rather than have it fed to them 24/7 by the media) but the results are the same.
Our local paper has good coverage of local races and you don’t have to buy the paper, you can get it via their website. Local TV news covers the races too.
Since not everyone is registered to vote, in these races you can win with as little as 3 or 4% of eligible voters. I always vote in these races.
How about there are just too damn many elections? The reason why local contests aren’t held during the big November every two years elections is because local candidates want it that way. Easier to get a bunch of seniors and stay at home moms to vote for you than having to appeal to the entire electorate.
We had some local elections last year with the high turnout so not all of them are in off years.
Kind of ironic that people in places like China would really like to vote and we have many people who don’t about it.
My local paper and local TV cover the city of Chicago’s races, not who’s running for school board or town council in my tiny little suburb. (There is an area paper but they’re so obnoxious about pushing subscriptions/early subscription renewal that we don’t subscribe.) So it’s a pain in the rear to dig up information, and I do what I can, but I skip voting on the races that I know nothing about.
We have had several local elections with big differences in the 2 sides that were running. We are a high growth area so a big issue is always how much growth should be allowed and what type of growth. Usually the 2 sides boil down to guys who pretty much support all growth with little restrictions and others who want to do a better job of managing the growth.
People hear far less about local races than they do about statewide and national races. Last year, for instance, there were news stories about Obama vs. McCain every day, everywhere. There were also ads not only for them, but for any statewide office. Everyone knew who was running and could make a decision on who they wanted.
For an off-year, with just local races, you don’t get that media coverage. The newspaper usually has a handful of articles about the races, often about ones you can’t vote on anyway. Any recap is usually just regurgitating press releases, and if there is a debate, it usually isn’t televised and which few people bother to attend. The average voter only gets a few mailings, all of which say, in one form or another, “I’m going to cut your taxes and provide more services.”
TV news doesn’t even mention the races until Election Day.
One of the biggest failings of newspapers is their poor coverage of local elections, which is crazy, since it’s one area where they can surpass anything else. If a newspaper did a daily article covering several of the local races – and cover each race more than once – they’d be providing news that wasn’t available anywhere else.
Local issues are important, but unless one affects you directly, you don’t get involved in the race.
At least where I am, the difference between candidates on local issues isn’t that extreme. A lot of people can get passionate about issues like abortion, but they don’t get all that into issues like zoning unless it has a direct impact on them such as relocating a strip club into their neighborhood.
Like everyone has said, it is harder to get information on the local races. For the extremely local elections such as ANC Commissioner, it is almost impossible to get much information. I knew who was running for the ANC seat only because she lives a few doors down from me and I know her well. But I had no idea who her opponent was and what issues she was running on.
Local government has very little effect on my life, partly because I have no kids in school. The vast majority of my taxes go to higher levels of government, and the laws about which I know the most and have the strongest opinions are passed at those levels.
The Chicago metropolitan area, in which I live, is atomized into hundreds of suburbs, and it’s impossible for the media to cover all of them. None of my friends live in my suburb, I didn’t grow up here, and I might not live here myself that much longer.
I have only limited time for keeping up with public affairs, and I find it more stimulating and practical to use that time to keep up with state, national and international politics, which draw wider commentary and which I can discuss with people who don’t live in the same tiny town as myself.
Local government? No time and no interest. I’m sorry, but I can’t learn enough about everything to please everybody.
In some places like NJ local taxes are very high , they have a big impact on your finances. Do they have a higher turnout? I don’t know but I doubt it.
BTW people who vote in national elections often don’t know the issues although they may think they do.
I just can’t be sad and angry for that much of my life. We spend the better part of 2 years being whipped into a frenzy listening to, “Don’t let them take away your guns!” “Oh yeah, well don’t let them take away your right to an abortion!” After all of that I really don’t want to deal with, “Don’t let them deny your children the best possible education!”“Oh yeah, don’t let them continue to raise your taxes!”
If I go vote in this election I will vote for Bloomberg even though I don’t like that he finagled the laws to be allowed to run again because so far everything here seems pretty good and I have no complaints about the way my money is spent. I don’t give a damn what the other guy has to say which is kind of sad, really, but I just don’t have the emotional energy to invest in yet another election.
A big part of the problem is that local newspapers are cutting their staffs to the bone. Whereas 10 years ago you may have had several reporters covering city hall, now you may only have one, and that one reporter might also be covering the entire county.
Our local school board election was the lead story on page 1 of today’s paper. That’s because it probably means a major shift in school board policies. Even with staff cuts we still get very good local coverage.
How so? Does your area not have property taxes that pay for school levies?
When there are votes that pertain to schools around here, they are either for levies which directly effect the taxes I pay, or for school board members who decide how my tax money is spent (in part - yes, they do make school policy).
I don’t have kids either, but I still think it’s important that a community keeps an eye on how schools are run.
The idea that everyone needs to vote on 1 day is very outdated , many places have started early voting so the idea that you can’t find time is no longer a good excuse.
I don’t vote in local elections because I don’t have kids, I don’t own property, and I move frequently. I think the community should be run by people who actually have a stake in its future. When I finally settle somewhere and buy property, I will vote in local elections.
Furthermore, at least in our local elections, it seems that the only way to know the true value of the candidates is to live in the area for a long time so you get to know what they’re like and what their record is. Our local papers do not muckrake on the local officials. Old misdeeds are not discussed. I feel like I don’t have any clue who these candidates really are.
My rural area’s local elections are very unexciting. Many positions are uncontested. I vote only because I think it is a good example for my kids.