Government By the People

This week's Independent looks at proposed legislation that would force larger cities to move the timing of their elections to correspond with state elections:

A new state law mandating municipalities with populations over 175,000 change their council elections from spring to November in order to coincide with state and federal elections has Gilbert town officials thinking proactively.

“Pick your poison,” Gilbert Mayor Steve Berman said. “The Legislature has done a great job sticking their nose in our town’s business. We might as well change our own election dates before they make us. We can wait until 2010 or we can do it now.”

This is one time that I agree with Mayor Berman. The Mister and I have long bemoaned the poor turnout for our town elections, and have thought that voting at the same time as state elections might make a difference. Why is it that we are so interested and involved, relatively speaking, in national elections, and yet seem so apathetic about the governing bodies in our own back yards? Local elections affect our daily lives so much more than the national ones.

Read the rest of the article for comments by various elected officials. One could argue about the merits of being forced by legislative fiat to move election dates; but my point is that I would love to see more participation - also known as voting - in the local political scene.