Republican Legislators Mucking WIth Local Elections

Reckon That They Want to Suppress Turnout to Empower Local Political Machines?

Editorial: Cities line up against state election mandate
Posted: December 1, 2015 - 5:44pm | Updated: December 2, 2015 - 12:01am
One would think that our state lawmakers — after failing not once, but four times in session this year — might figure out that municipalities know how to handle their own business a heck of a lot better than Tallahassee. Think again.
The Florida League of Cities and many of its members are lining up to oppose a bill that would make every municipality, town and village line up their election cycles, either by matching statewide elections in November on even years or being on the first Tuesday in November on odd years.
The majority of municipalities select their own times for elections. The News Service of Florida reports that the new law, if passed, could change the way elections are run in 260 of the state’s 411 cities.
The other 151 currently hold the November-cycled elections. St. Augustine, St. Augustine Beach and Hastings are included in that minority, so the proposed legislation would not change much locally.
There are pros and cons. Lawmakers believe, though they’re short on real data, that the switch would encourage voter participation. They may have a point here. The turnout in off-year or special elections is generally lower than a broader-based elections — especially during presidential balloting.
We’ve certainly seen that in St. Johns County. We’ve had a pair of special elections just this year: One in April in which residents elected two district representatives and a senator and another early last month when voters passed a ½-cent sales tax for the school district. Both brought out about 20 percent of registered voters.
In addition, Supervisor of Elections Vicky Oakes says that tying local election dates to the larger November ballots is more cost effective for the municipalities, which don’t shoulder the full bill from her office. We’ve also seen that this year with the school board’s tab.
Opponents say that voters can suffer what they call “ballot fatigue” on longer ballots, sometimes not making it all the way through to the bottom — where the municipal races are usually relegated.
Oakes doesn’t buy that one. All the county’s registered voters receive sample ballots before the election, so “fatigue” doesn’t have to be an issue. The Record also publishes special election sections with a sample ballot. It can be filled out in anticipation of precinct voting.
And the truth is, so much of our voting these days is done early or by absentee ballots, so there’s no crunch time.
But she does wonder aloud, as do we, why the legislature needs to concern itself with how communities see fit to run their elections. While she says the November cycle works well for us, it may not for a county with, say, two dozen cities, towns or villages.
The point is, Oakes says, “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” Let communities decide what’s best internally.
The other point is just as simple. Our lawmakers have not demonstrated their ability to fix anything this year.
Inflicting themselves on home rule is more than inappropriate, considering their own track record of lawmaking paralysis and pugnacious political puffery.