Chimes of Freedom

Lately, there has been alot of misinformation about the Village's plans for moving municipal elections to November and I thought it would be worth clarifying the situation.

A majority of the Board of Trustees has agreed, in principle, to move our municipal election to November, starting in 2013.  In fact, an ordinance to implement the change was drafted by Village Counsel and was requested to be put on the May 14 meeting agenda.  (However, the Village President chose to omit the request, along with 3 other agenda requests, for an undisclosed reason which I can only assume was because he did not support the idea, despite the verbalized desire of a majority of the Board for the election move.  The suppression of agenda items by one person is simply contrary to what a democracy is all about.  Each member of the Board has the right to express themselves on any topic, but stifling that expression is simply unacceptable.)

Similarly, moving the election to November will improve the democratic process by increasing voter participation as has been shown in towns like Mahwah which already moved their non-partisan municipal election from May and held their election in November 2011, resulting in a 41.6% turnout, compared to a 16.2% turnout in the prior May election.  In addition, another 19 municipalities (out of 86 nonpartisan municipalities) have also agreed to move their May non-partisan Municipal election to November starting in either 2012 or 2013. (and over 85 percent of School Boards in NJ have also decided to move their non-partisan elections from April to November:  http://www.njsba.org/sb_notes/20120222/november.html). 

Likewise, voter tunout in South Orange is also far less in May (dropping to a record-low 11% in 2011) than in November as shown by the following chart that was compiled by the Charter Review Committee:
Year      May       November
2005       26%            48%
2007       36%            24%
2009       18%            45%
2011       11%            29%

Aditionally, moving the municipal election to November will save taxpayer money.   According to the Charter Review Committee, municipal elections in South Orange that are held in May cost approximately $22,000 every time they are held.  Clearly, moving the municipal election to November and consolidating all elections at one time will eliminate this extraneous expense.   Quite simply, moving the municipal election to November will save money and increase voter participation, which is a win-win for all taxpayers and residents.

I initially had my own concerns about moving the election to November due to the perceived fear of partisan influence in our non-partisan elections.  However, I ultimately weighed the potential for greater voter participation in our democracy as far more important.  It is a simple fact, based on historical data, that in everyone's busy lives, people are more likely to be aware of and participate in an election when it occurs in November.

Since the next South Orange municipal election is not scheduled until 2013, we do not need to act immediately and ultimately the Board of Trustees agreed to observe the results of the 2012 November non-partisan elections in other municipalities in order to have more data before formalizing the move for South Orange in 2013 later this Fall.  There has also been some consideration to include this as a referendum on the ballot in November since moving the election will also extend the terms of all seven members of the current Board of Trustees.

However, just like placing all requested items on a public agenda, moving elections to November seems to be the most obvious choice for an open, transparent and participatory democracy.