In Ferguson, the elections are in April in odd-numbered years (which probably depresses voter turnout and needs to be changed). See also. I’m not clear if that means one is coming next month. But, if so, perhaps we can expect higher voter turnout than Ferguson’s usually abysmal turnout?
As a resident of St. Louis County I can shed a little light on the subject.
There are a lot of places around here that have municipal elections in off years, and always have. (The city of St. Louis held its municipal primary last week, and will elect municipal officials next month, same as Ferguson.) The idea is that the voters will pay more attention to local offices when not in competition with elections for the big offices. Ferguson will be just one muncipality among many in St. Louis County with an election on that day.
That said, it’s acknowledged that voter turnout is usually terrible in these elections. In the just-completed primary in St. Louis, there were maybe 15,000 votes cast in a city of 300,000.) The 11.7% turnout figure the author cited for Ferguson sounds about right. In fact, if you think that’s a poor turnout, wait until we have one of our August primary elections when someone slips a school bond issue into it.
It’s my understanding that Ferguson will have one or two city council races where all the candidates are African-American, so there will be more diversity among the elected officials.
There have been plenty of voter registration efforts in Ferguson since Michael Brown was killed. Whether that does anything to buck the general off-year voting trend (the people who turn out are generally older, more affluent, long-time homeowners, and most importantly, opposed to something on the ballot) remains to be seen.
The City of Ferguson cannot change the date of the municipal election like ThinkProgress suggests. The date is established by state law, specifically RSMO 115.121.3. (I’m having trouble providing a link on my iPad, so google the statute number.)
The council members and the mayor serve three year terms, so the “odd-numbered years” statement is also false. This is section 3.2.3 of the Ferguson city charter, also availble by an easy google search.
So, when is the next city election? Google wouldn’t tell me that, the fickle tease.
April 7, 2015. The next will be in April of 2016, then April of 2017. Each year, 2 of the 6 council seats are up for election, though it appears this year that 3 seats are up. I can’t find an explanation for that. None of the incumbents are seeking another term. The mayor was elected last year.
There have been some highly publicized voter registration drives in the area recently. We’ll find out in a couple weeks if that does any good.
Fear not- in less than a decade, all the white residents will have fled Ferguson. The town will be overwhelmingly black, and its city government will be nearly all black.
When that happens, Eric Holder can pat himself on the back for a job well done. True, there won’t be any shops left for honest black residents to buy things at (or for the next Michael Brown to steal from), but the government will be all black.
And isn’t that what counts?
Why would this result in no shops?
Seconded.
astorian, ever going to follow up on this? What did you mean?
I can’t speak for astorian, but white flight can have pretty devastating economic consequences for those left behind. Here’s an article about a town that has suffered greatly in the aftermath.
The general pattern is that as the (relatively) wealthy residents move away, they close their businesses. The tax base falls, which leads to poor services. The closure of businesses leads to high unemployment. Both of those tend to lead to increased crime, drug use, and other societal ills that tend to go hand-in-hand with poverty. The residents who remain often don’t have the capital to start businesses that create jobs, and there’s not much draw for outside businesses for obvious reasons.
You know, when and where America had segregation, blacks were never allowed to govern or police themselves on any scale. I read in James Loewen’s Sundown Towns how in the latter 19th Century one AA community – in Kansas or Oklahoma, I think – tried to form their own town, since they obviously weren’t welcome among the whites, and the local white towns put that down hard and deliberately, by isolating the prototown economically.
I heard on the radio this morning that three of six Ferguson City Council seats are up for election today.
So you’re fine with racism as long as the money’s still there? Rich white people get to decide what to do with poor blacks? :dubious:
Here’s the thing though- if the majority of the people of Ferguson really cared, they’d make sure and vote, regardless of how or when.
I’m getting more than a little tired of hearing about how various trivial obstacles are such monumental threats to democracy, when I’ve gone to a nearby city to vote because I hadn’t re-registered yet, and have done absentee ballots for a city 200 miles away because I hadn’t re-registered yet.
Claiming that the elections are in “the wrong years” seems like a pretty pathetic attempt to rationalize the behavior of an apathetic and unmotivated electorate. If this stuff was really important, they could drag their asses to the polling places, vote absentee, etc… on off years.
You’re talking about people who can’t even pay their traffic tickets or renew their car insurance.
It’s easier just to complain.
Regards,
Shodan
nm
I don’t buy that most of the thousands in Ferguson just happen to be too lazy to vote. In this country, whenever turnout has been particularly low for a particular locality, especially for black people, the explanation for this low turnout has not been laziness. I doubt it is in this case.
Here’s the story of the election. It’s from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, no registration is required, but you may have to answer a single survey question to be able to read it.
In a nutshell, three new council members were elected, two of whom are black. Voter turnout nearly doubled to about 30% of registered voters. No candidate was an incumbent.
That is impressive. In Los Angeles, turnout for municipal elections is only 12%.