Election Lessons on Municipalities

There's a great county clerk in my home county named Jamie Shew who consistently advocates for young voters and encourages voter registration. Novel idea, huh? He's been great this past election to use online tools to remind voters of essential deadlines, answer questions, just all around do a great job.

This weekend Shew participated in Citizen Now!, an academy sponsored by the nonprofit group Kids Voting Kansas with the area's sophomores and juniors. He said that the election results from 2008 for young voters were impressive

"During the 2008 presidential election, more than 60 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds voted in Douglas County. It was a higher rate than those between the ages of 25 and 44."

But Shew said the municipal elections in April were a little less than "stellar" with a mere 2 percent of voter turnout.

"The people elected in the 2009 election have more impact on your daily life than the president of the United States. They determine how much you pay in taxes, whose streets get paved and if there is going to be a noise ordinance," Shew said.

We've established that the off year elections can hardly compare to years when there is a presidential candidate at the top. It isn't just about young people, either. All voters experience a drop off, and in city elections when there's no chance a candidate will have an ad appear on Adult Swim or the Daily Show much less in prime time during Heros. There's no way the kind of information, enthusiasm, or outreach will come anywhere near what happens during a Presidential election.

Further, when you have municipal elections you don't typically have partisan candidates so key organizing groups like political parties don't get involved, organize, or register voters. More and more municipal elections face the cold of this lack of education and information and the lackluster turnout is the result. Shew is doing the right thing to raise awareness but more can be done from local civic groups to reach out to the community about local issues.

I'm not the best person to talk about what to do beyond say "do more!" and "spend more money on elections!" Those are the easy fixes, but for cash strapped municipalities there aren't a lot of options beyond using the free social media sites available and having existing officials do as much outreach as possible. The result, however, can be a continued focus on the same groups elected officials always focus on, which tend to neglect young voters.