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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2011 > May > 16 > Entry
Editorials: Extra elections do nothing to help voters
The bipolar course of American politics during the last few years has shown even the most thickheaded denier that elections matter. A lot.
If Barack Obama hadn’t been elected in 2008 — along with big Democratic congressional majorities — universal health care coverage would not have happened, period.
If John Kasich had not been elected in 2010 with a general Republican tide, collective-bargaining changes and more wouldn’t have happened, period. This list goes on.
The changes being made are in the structure of things — if not the most basic structure, then the next level down. Walls are being torn down, new rooms built, old ones eliminated. In the new structure, people who haven’t been around for a while could easily get lost. And the construction and reconstruction never seem to end.
It was not always so, when the political parties were more like each other.
Whether the new situation will cause more people to vote isn’t clear. What is clear is that the elections that matter most have bigger turnout than the others. When multiple high offices and big issues are being hotly contested, more people turn out than, say, when there’s only one matter on the ballot.
Ohio has long had the practice of allowing local entities to call special elections for February and August. Most typically, the votes are about school levies, but municipal levies and other issues come up, too.
The schools often say they need this option, in part because, if they lose on the first attempt, they can try again after addressing concerns of critics, possibly by lowering the levy proposal.
In truth, though, other political considerations are often at play, including the calculation that low turnout might improve the odds of passage, given that many teachers and many parents of students are likely to vote, even if overall turnout is only 20 percent.
Superintendents and school boards are trying to do right by the organizations they serve, which are made dependent on levies by Ohio law. But something feels wrong about taking advantage of low turnout.
One result of special elections is that people can be called to the polls several times a year, given that every year has either federal/state/county elections or municipal elections.
If there’s any way to consolidate some of these elections, that should be done, in the name of efficiency, consideration for voters and higher turnout.
It’s not easy, because most elections are built into some constitution or other. But the state Senate is now looking at eliminating February and August elections, as part of a large bill about election law. Sponsored by Sen. Keith Faber, R-Celina, chair of the government oversight committee, the special-elections provision ought to find bipartisan support.
Election reform has moved in recent times toward including more people in elections: early voting, no-fault absentee voting, massive get-out-the-vote campaigns, easier registration.
There has also been backsliding, including efforts to narrow what kinds of identification may be used at the polling place.
Eliminating special elections needs to be seen as part of the effort to increase participation, by having more people vote on the issues in question and by loading up the major elections so as to draw attention and more people to them.
If the case that elections matter is overwhelming, the case that special elections matter is obviously not. It’s a tough sell. Given that there’s a good alternative, they should be eliminated.
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