Misc. Municipal Politics

[MapmanNo1]

According to the Daily News, Waluk is interested in re-revising the city's charter to go back to odd-year elections:

Waluk said he would call for the appointment of a charter review commission to evaluate the city charter. The last time a charter review commission was called, in 1999-2000, the commission recommended holding city elections in even-numbered years to coincide with state elections. Officials elected in 2001 served a three-year term so the city elections would fall in 2004 and coincide with the state elections every two years.

Now, Waluk said, he would like a new commission to reconsider moving city elections back to the odd-numbered years. He said some people who voted straight party tickets in the state election did not realize they did not vote in the city's nonpartisan election. He said other voters did not realize that after the long state ballot with its many referendum questions, there was a local city ballot.

"There were too many under votes," he said. Every time a vote is not cast in a particular race or on a particular referendum question, the voting machine registers that un-cast vote as an "under vote."

[Lone Ranger]

He's got a point, but wouldn't it be easier just to eliminate the straight ticket option from the ballot? That would seem to be the more natural conclusion, IMO ...

[Cotuit]

He's got a point, but wouldn't it be easier just to eliminate the straight ticket option from the ballot?

[dgreco]

Yes, I'd go a step further and remove all references to party from the ballot. People should be voting for candidates, not parties, if they don't know who they are voting for when they enter the booth and simply plan on voting for ( R )s and ( D )s then they have no business in the booth at all.

As for the confusion of not realizing there's a local ballot in addition to the state one... my first instinct is to say, if you're too stupid to vote, your vote shouldn't count. What do people think those additional pages are for? But I suppose the poll workers could actually hand people each ballot individually and tell the voters what each one is and remind them to complete both. Also, having a different color for the local ballot wouldn't be a bad idea.

I'd also scrap the primaries in favor of a run-off system.

OK, the party bosses can hunt me down and kill me now.

[Cotuit]

I'd rather have 10 informed voters than the whole state just ticking a box for their party. And the little * next to the 'endorsed candidate' on the primary ballot burns my ass. If the parties want to endorse a candidate, have a convention and choose the candidate you want on the ballot, don't spend my tax money holding elections that you highlight who you want me to vote for on. If someone doesn't get anointed by the party machinery they are free to run as an Independent, or a Communist, or a Bull Moose, I don't care.