FeedsDid voter turnout hurt bond election?
School officials know that turnout for school elections is rarely as high as in a general election.
According to pollster Ed Sarpolus of research firm EPIC-MRA, that’s OK, because a low turnout is also key to getting a bond approved. That’s because school districts don’t generally have the ability to “educate” a large number of voters about needs the bond would purport to meet.
While low turnout is desirable from the district perspective, a survey by EPIC-MRA revealed another fact: that the turnout in May was too low.
That’s especially true in Canton Township, where 15 percent of registered voters cast a ballot. Plymouth and Plymouth Township saw turnouts of 24 percent and 25 percent, respectively.
Forty-nine percent of respondents in the bond failure survey by EPIC-MRA said they didn’t vote in the bond election, but nearly all (99 percent) of respondents were considered “active voters,” meaning they voted in the governor’s race in 2002 or in the presidential election in 2004.
Sarpolus said non-voters and voters for the bond election were polled to see how turnout would affect a future bond proposal.
The outcome?
“You need a larger turnout, especially your parents,” said Sarpolus.
Only 43 percent of those surveyed said classrooms at Plymouth-Canton schools are overcrowded. Among the remaining 57 percent, a majority (85 percent) believe that school buildings in the district are either in “excellent” or “pretty good” condition.
The district needs more parents to vote, but it also has to convince those who aren’t parents. Seventy-eight percent of those who voted do not have children in the Plymouth-Canton schools. Many of those are seniors or retirees. A prevalence of younger families in Canton means they haven’t had the time to determine what really needs to be fixed at the schools, according to Sarpolus.
“They don’t know what goes on in your buildings. They don’t know if you need classrooms or not. They don’t know what you need or don’t need,” he said.
Show, don’t tell
The school board is taking at least one meeting on the road in response to those findings. A workshop scheduled for Sept. 19 will take place at Central Middle School, the facility the district wanted to remodel into a new alternative education facility if the 2006 bond had been approved. Trustees will tour the building before the meeting begins at 7 p.m.
More could be done, said Sarpolus. The district is too good at keeping up appearances and is not quick to point out flaws. That confuses the 85 percent who think everything is fine.
“If people never get inside your building, how do they know about what’s not working—the plumbing, the lighting, the fixtures, the technology, the overcrowding or the air conditioning?”
Some districts, he said, allow senior citizens to use the facilities in the mornings for recreation activities.
“You need more than parents to win,” he said. “You have to go through an identification campaign, identifying your ‘yes’ voter amongst your senior citizens and your non-parents.”
“Losing is not always bad”
While the survey will help guide the board in what to choose on a new bond proposal, they will still need an energized “yes” committee to help out.
“The people who feel that they lost at the ballot could feel more plugged in, and that’s why losing is not always bad, because the people who felt that it was really needed are now saying, ‘We don’t want this to happen again,’” he said. “Some people won’t take it for granted.”
They may be more motivated, but “yes” committees still don’t have the resources to conduct repeated mailings or TV and radio advertisements, especially if the district decides to try for a new bond in February.
The media may not be the most effective method, though.
“These bond issues are highly dependent on word of mouth,” said Sarpolus.
The district and pro-bond groups should reach out to voters more aggressively, by using phone banks and going door to door with the message.
District officials said they haven’t decided when to try for another bond, though they know the April deadline for the $2.3 million is looming.
It would likely be included on any version—trimmed down or no—that is next presented to voters.
“If you’re going to go in February, that’s very little time to educate,” Sarpolus said. “If you don’t have time to educate, go with things that you definitely need.”
