SUN EDITORIAL:

Addressing low voter turnout

It is a mistake to separate municipal elections from other elections

Sunday, April 12, 2009 | 2:07 a.m.

Five municipalities in Southern Nevada conducted primary elections Tuesday in races for mayor, city council and municipal court, but you would hardly know it from the paltry turnout. Of the nearly 469,000 registered voters in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Boulder City and Mesquite, only 10.4 percent cast votes.

That makes it hard for the winners to say they have mandates.

A reasonable argument can be made that apathy is responsible for the low turnout, but let’s not dismiss another possible factor: Southern Nevadans are suffering from voter fatigue.

Consider that Southern Nevada has been on a nonstop election treadmill since the state participated in presidential election caucuses early last year. Nevada, a key battleground state, was deluged with presidential candidates and campaign ads in the run-up to the caucuses. That was followed by the statewide primary and general elections last fall and now this year’s municipal elections.

A reasonable solution would be for the Nevada Legislature to pass Assembly Bill 256, which was approved Thursday by the Assembly Elections, Procedures, Ethics and Constitutional Amendments Committee. AB256 would eliminate the odd-year municipal elections by requiring that they be conducted instead at the same time as the primary and general elections in even-numbered years beginning in 2012.

One supporter of the legislation is Clark County because it is estimated that taxpayers will save $1 million per election cycle by combining the municipal elections with the statewide contests. Another benefit of making the switch is that municipal races would attract much higher turnout.

Municipal races are vitally important because they deal with issues at grass-roots community levels. Separating those races from elections held in even-numbered years, when voters are most focused on candidates, has been a mistake.

Discussion: 2 comments so far…

By neiman1

4/12/09 at 4:10 a.m.

Suggest removal

The newly elected officials don't have to prove a mandate. They can use the new White House terminology of bipartisanship expressed by our President and our Speaker. We won, deal with it.
By dncarac

4/14/09 at 9:08 a.m.

Suggest removal

I can point to two reasons for the low voter turnout. First, the complete alienation between government and the common folks. The proper response would be for the common folks to become involved and run for office. Second, in today's society, it is very unpleasant to be involved in politics. Joe-the-plumber found this out to his dismay, and all he did was ask a question of a candidate at a town-hall meeting, presumably set up BY THE CANDIDATE to solicit questions from the Joe-the-plumbers of the world. Next thing he knew, the attorney general of the state and the state internal revenue office was investigating him. And all he did was ask a question. What normal, common-sense, person would run for office in an environment where you can be audited just for asking a question. (I'm keeping an eye on the law student who asked Barney Frank an inconvenient question. I doubt he'll be able to graduate).

The second problem MUST be fixed before the first one can be.

Dennis