Benjamin Franklin said, “A penny saved is a penny earned.” Here in Lake Worth, we elected to go with November elections to save money. But was it really worth it?
During the Presidential Election, I distanced myself from all the Obama campaigning—there was just too much to do on a local level and we all wanted to make change. Obama was going to win anyway and he did not need my little bit of help. It is imperative that we get it right at the local level because this is where we spend and live our lives. Every decision affects us personally and directly.
Over 122 million people across the country voted in the November Presidential election. Here in Lake Worth, 8,446 votes were cast overall in District 2 and 7,985 in District 4 in the General Election. We knew the turn-out was going to be large; it always is in a Presidential Election year.
March is election month for most cities around here. Today you could be off to the polls as 18 municipalities here in Palm Beach County are holding elections along with two ballot initiatives. For some reason, our City Commission a few years ago wanted November elections. I believe they thought it would save them a few thousand bucks and low turnout was cited for March elections. They thought it better reflected the will of the voters if the turn-out was larger. We all know that most people have no clue on the candidates or the issues. The public spoke at the City Commission meeting about November versus March and against it but to deaf ears. It went on the ballot, pushed by Commissioner Nadine Burns. It was a 3 to 2 vote.
November is the absolute worst time to campaign. Not only is it the hottest time of the year but half of the City has not arrived back for the winter, which makes fund raising that much more difficult and you spend more time devoted to that instead of getting out among the people.
The staggered elections make it hard for some candidates to campaign for a November election, competing against National, State and County elections for the interest of the people. Local candidates have to work that much harder to bring their message to the people in order to keep them from just voting for the first name that appears on the ballot, for the incumbent or for the “nice” sounding name. The former Commission wanted three year terms for our officials and the voters had the good sense to say “no.” We now have some officials in office in Lake Worth for 2 years and 9 months—way too long for this city that is full of bad decisions.
We all know that a ballot initiative is “fixed” when you have a political vote from the dais behind it. It is extremely difficult to campaign against it and win. When there are so many other issues you are working on, it makes it even more impossible. Citizens Come First successfully campaigned in 2008 and beat the city on two out of three initiatives it advocated, losing the third by 29 votes. Trying to educate the voters on one issue is difficult enough, but three?
It is not worth the difference in cost to have our elections fall to the bottom of a long ballot particularly every four years during a presidential election. Local issues and candidates get totally lost. You may get the numbers but you are not assured of anything else. Let’s get back to March elections and stop being known as the City that always does dumb things. If people don't want to come out to the polls, they get the government they deserve.
And I will leave you with the famous words of Winston Churchill: “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”
