FeedsOutnumbered at the precinct
I’m writing this after a quick trip to the voting precinct on Tuesday.
I vote at Hoover Elementary in Wayne, where my son goes to school. There’s always a cheery bunch of precinct workers awaiting me and Tuesday was no exception. I suppose it could be just because they were waiting for someone to talk to. At about 10 a.m., I was the fifth voter in precinct 7. No one greeted me as I approached the building—no one was there to hand out literature, say thank you or anything like that.
Ah, a typical school board election.
It’s really sad, honestly, the kind of turnout school elections tend to have. Clerks in some communities actually sound optimistic when they predict a 10 percent turnout. They do what they can to increase the numbers, but their efforts have been limited lately by an idiotic court ruling that prevents them from sending out unsolicited absentee ballot applications they way they have been able to in the past.
I’ve editorialized often—during every school election cycle, probably—about the importance of school board elections. The quality of a school district is an important facet of the quality of life—and therefore, property values—in any municipality and the people in charge of school decisions have a tremendous burden to bear. It’s a travesty that they are usually put in place by such a small minority of voters.
Part of it is the problem with the electoral system to begin with.
State legislators, in their infinite wisdom, have tried to make it easier for voters by setting up specific dates each year where a school district can choose to schedule elections. They’ve transferred the responsibility from the districts themselves to the cities or townships they serve. It has, for the most part, made things even more confusing.
Part of the debate about moving school board elections to November—which some districts, such as Plymouth-Canton and Northville have done—centered on the number of other items on the ballot. School board members have expressed concern about being lost on a busy ballot.
Well, is that any worse than being lost in a sea of apathy? I think not.
There needs to be more election reform in Michigan. Maybe it makes more sense to have one set day for school elections—for school board races, millage requests, sinking fund questions, community college issues—for districts to plan around. They might initially complain about the lack of flexibility, but if they can’t plan around a set schedule year in and year out, flexibility won’t help them.
It certainly doesn’t make much sense the way things are now. Is there any other business where you would pay five or six people to wait around all day for a thin stream of customers?
