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In 1963, 85 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in the city elections for Cohoes, N.Y. Last year, turnout for the city's municipal election was just 24 percent.
Lessons from a local election 57 years ago for boosting turnout now
Sep 17 2020
Van Buskirk is an engineer and urban planner who has been active in politics since the 1960s. This summer he self-published "Big Mike, Uncle Dan and Me: How I Beat 20th Century New York State's Most Corrupt Political Machine."
<p>In Cohoes, the suburb of Albany, N.Y., where I grew up, 85 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in the city elections of 1963. Last year, turnout for the municipal election was just 24 percent. What was the key factor that caused this phenomenon?</p><p>The Census Bureau pegged turnout for the 2016 presidential election at 61.4 percent. In Belgium, one of the handful of developed nations where voting is compulsory, 88 percent participated in last year's national election — so perhaps that's a reasonable upper limit to expect across the United States.</p><p>But turnout in our local elections is abysmally low. Research by Jan Brennan of the National Civic League found the highest recent participation in a mayoral election was 47 percent in Bradenton, Fla. — and the lowest was 6 percent. She recommended local contests always be on even-numbered years to coincide with federal and most state contests. </p><p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p>Many local candidates complain their races would then be overshadowed and they could not get their messages out. Other research concludes that many local elections lack competition, which results in low turnout. And Eric Oliver, an expert on local politics at the University of Chicago, says getting people to the polls for city contests is not necessarily best if they are not informed.</p><p>One way to address low turnout is to increase the number of potential voters. And one way to do that is by allowing eligible voters with valid ID to register and vote on the same day. Research suggests the 21 states with same-day registration have consistently higher turnout.</p><p>Modest increases in turnout are also reported by the five states that, even before the pandemic, had started sending return-by-mail ballots to everyone eligible for each election. And the same goes for the 16 states that automatically register residents to vote (unless they ask to opt out) whenever they do business with the motor vehicle bureau or some other state agency that keeps identifying records on people.</p><p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p><p>Many critics claim that the easier it is to vote, the easier it is to commit voter fraud. One Gallup poll found 59 percent of people have no confidence in the honesty of our elections. At the same time, a Pew Research Center poll after the 2018 midterm found 76 percent support for requiring an ID at the polls — which many in the political establishment oppose because it discourages minority voters.</p><p>Judicial Watch, a conservative foundation, recently reported on a county clerk in Michigan altering 193 absentee ballots. Los Angeles County had 1.6 million inactive voters on its rolls two years ago. And a close Democratic primary in June for a New York City congressional seat took weeks to decide after the mail-in system was beset with problems, from the Postal Service to the Board of Elections, with over 65,000 absentee ballots eventually disqualified.</p><p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p><p>In synthesizing the research there is general agreement on the following: Voter rolls need to be accurate. They need to be regularly updated to create confidence in the election process. Local elections need to be more competitive and voters need better information on local issues. And everyone who is legally registered should be encouraged to vote.</p><p>Now, back to my hometown. </p><p>Six decades ago, its 20,000 people included almost 13,000 eligible voters. They had to be at least 21 to vote in those days and they had to pass a literacy test. They had four days in October to register to vote in the November general election.</p><p>An entrenched and corrupt political machine controlled the city government and school board, so there was limited political competition. Apathy resulted in such slogans as "My vote won't count."</p><p>I was part of the group of citizens that organized to challenge the machine at the polls. This Citizens Party solicited candidates, raised money and built a get-out-the-vote organization. And its leadership designed and implemented this strategy to optimize turnout:</p><p>First, people in all 23 precincts were assigned to assemble a file with the name, address, phone number, party affiliation and voting record of every eligible voter. City directories, telephone books, motor vehicle registrations and canvassing helped create the databases.</p><p>Next, people were identified for registration during the four-day window, using personal contact to provide would-be voters information on the issues. One targeted group was the 1,500 who had recently voted in presidential and gubernatorial contests — but not local ones. By the end of the drive, 87 percent of eligible voters were on the rolls, a record.</p><p>Then, an information campaign began. The new party got its message out by having a four-page flier, outlying the party in power's corruption, delivered to every household in the city. Other activities were rallies, canvassing of every household, a parade and letters targeting various issues for various groups.</p><p>Finally, the party arranged for 21 deputy state attorneys general to be at polling places on Election Day to ensure the integrity of the vote and challenge ineligible voters.</p><p>Thanks to all that, a record 18 of every 20 eligible voters cast a ballot — and the Cohoes Citizens Party won by 1,462 votes.</p><p>By 2019, apathy had returned with 24 percent turnout for a noncompetitive mayoral election.</p><p>Voter turnout correlates with politically competitive elections, a key factor. The more competitive the higher the correlation.</p>
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If Gov. Cuomo signs the measure, New York will be the 20th state to enact automatic voter registration.
New York joins growing movement for automatic voter registration
Jul 24 2020
New York lawmakers passed a bill this week to establish automatic voter registration, making it the second most populous state to do so.
The state Senate passed the measure Wednesday and the Assembly followed suit a day later, sending the legislation to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's desk. If AVR gets the Democratic governor's approval, it will go into effect at the start of 2023.
<p>Easing the voter registration process has been a growing movement across the country. Over the last five years, 19 other states (including California, the most populous state) and D.C. have enacted AVR, and all but three of these states have the process set up for this year's election.<br></p>
<p>The Democratic lawmakers who pushed the bill through this session say AVR will help register 2 million New Yorkers who are eligible to vote but are not currently on the rolls.</p>
<p>But because this registration process won't go into effect for another three years, New Yorkers not on the voter rolls will need to register online or by mail by Oct. 9 to vote in the November election.</p>
<p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p>Once AVR goes into effect, New Yorkers will be automatically registered, unless they wish to opt out, when they visit the DMV or another state agency.</p>
<p>"At a time when some states are trying to make it harder for people to vote, it's great to see New York moving closer to a reform that has dramatically increased registration every place it has been implemented," said Sean Morales-Doyle of the <a href="http://thefulcrum.us/brennan-center-for-justice" target="_self">Brennan Center for Justice</a>, a prominent progressive, good-government group that advocates for voting easements and other democracy reforms.</p>
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The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has 31 proposals to improve democracy, including increasing membership in the House.
Panel started by Founders unveils big plan to save democracy they started
Jun 11 2020
Expand the size of Congress. Place term limits on Supreme Court justices. Make voting mandatory.
These are just some of the more provocative recommendations for revitalizing our democracy from the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The 31 proposals, unveiled Thursday, come after two years of research into the system's dysfunction and deliberation about how to make it work better.
But the unveiling, as the 84-page report itself notes, also comes at a particularly stressful moment for an American democracy in which extreme partisanship has already crippled the government's ability to address important national problems.
<p>That gridlock is now magnified by a president who's repeatedly challenged decades of governing norms standing for re-election in five months; by a pandemic that has killed more than 100,000 Americans and propelled the country into deep recession this spring; and by weeks of nationwide protests demanding rapid systemic change to salve decades of anger and anguish at police brutality and systemic racism.</p><p>The recommendations "touch all sectors of American life and offer a bold path that will require all of us to commit to reinventing aspects of our constitutional democracy," David Oxtoby, president of the 240-year-old academy, said in releasing the report. "A disruptive media and information environment, outdated political institutions, economic and social inequality and hyperpartisan political leadership have laid bare the urgency of this imperative."</p><p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p>The report outlines a bleak picture of the current state of democracy — it's condition hobbled by such ailments as low voter turnout, a loss of trust in Congress and other governing institutions, and the one-third of millennials who say they don't consider democracy as essential.</p><p>"Trust in institutions has collapsed," the report concludes, "while an online culture of gleeful, nihilistic cynicism thrives."</p><p>Still, the commission found reasons to be optimistic that "reinvention of our constitutional democracy remains entirely within reach — and urgently needed."</p><p>The recommendations include a raft of policy proposals from the mainstream democracy reform agenda — and many of them were embraced by the Democratic House last year with passage of the comprehensive package dubbed HR 1, which the Republican Senate will never touch.<br></p><p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p><p>But several of them are relatively outside the box. And, notably, the academy does not join the chorus forming this year behind making voting-by-mail the nationwide norm — although it does say absentee balloting should be encouraged nationwide this fall, along with money to count votes reliably and fast, because of the coronavirus crisis.</p><p>These are some of the most prominent proposals, which the report puts in six categories:</p><h3>Boosting equality by:</h3><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Substantially enlarging the House of Representatives from its current 435 seats so that each member has fewer constituents than today's average of 750,000, although the exact number is not specified. </li><li>Using <a data-linked-post="2636700700" href="https://thefulcrum.us/ranked-choice-voting" target="_blank">ranked-choice voting</a> for presidential, congressional and state elections. This process allows voters to rate candidates for each position in order of preference, with automatic runoffs weeding out the least-popular until a single person backed by a majority emerges.</li><li>Turning the drawing of legislative district boundaries over to citizen redistricting commissions in all 50 states, as a way to end <a data-linked-post="2636688309" href="https://thefulcrum.us/gerrymandering" target="_blank">gerrymandering</a> by political parties driven to preserve their power.</li><li>Amending the Constitution to effectively overturn the <a data-linked-post="2636209592" href="https://thefulcrum.us/citizens-united" target="_blank">Citizens United v. FEC</a> decision by the Supreme Court a decade ago, thereby permitting stricter state and federal laws to control campaign contributions and spending.</li><li>Restricting justices to 18 years on the Supreme Court, with appointments staggered so one seat comes open in each two-year term of Congress.</li></ul><h3>Empowering voters by:</h3><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Giving them more choices about where to vote through vote centers and early in-person voting.</li><li>Conducting federal elections on Veterans Day so that voting occurs when many have the day off.</li><li>Allowing every person to register as late as Election Day and be automatically registered when they do business with their state driver's license agency.</li><li>Permitting 16-year-olds to preregister and giving them options to practice voting for two years.</li><li>Requiring people to vote in federal elections unless they provide a valid reason, similar to what's required in more than a dozen other countries including such functional democracies as Australia and Belgium. Those who don't vote would face a small fine.</li><li>Creating orientation for voters participating in their first federal elections.</li></ul><h3>Enhancing governmental responsiveness by:</h3><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Experimenting with citizens' assemblies to allow members of the public to convene in blocs big enough that their policy proposals hold sway in Congress.</li></ul><h3>Expanding civic engagement by:</h3><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Establishing a National Trust for Civic Infrastructure to subsidize local groups that promote community engagement and better citizenship. It would be funded from private sources at first, but the panel said Congress should consider chipping in.</li></ul><h3>Improving communication by:</h3><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Subsidizing innovative efforts to replenish the news delivery system displaced in recent years by social media. One idea is taxing digital advertising and using the revenue to support experimental media platforms and expand local and regional investigative journalism.</li></ul><h3>Bolstering commitment to democracy by:</h3><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Establishing an expectation that every American would devote a year to some form of public service and expanding funding for service programs and fellowships.</li><li>Investing more in civic education at all grade levels.</li></ul><p>"We have no time to waste," the report concludes. "For love of freedom and equality, for love of country, for love of one another, and out of hope for a better future, we need to reclaim our bond."</p><p>The report was produced by a Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship, which convened 49 public listening sessions across the country and commissioned its own research after it was established two years ago by the AAAS. The academy — created by several of the Founders in 1790 to highlight the finest minds in science, scholarship, business, public affairs and the arts — is focused now on conducting policy studies in response to societal challenges.</p><p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p>
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Ohio voters will face single ballot question on expanded voting
Apr 15 2020
In a victory for election reformers, the Ohio Supreme Court has decided a package of proposed election changes in how the state votes should be put to voters as a single measure.
The court on Tuesday agreed with the organization promoting the referendum and blocked Secretary of State Frank LaRose and other Republican state officials from dividing the proposed constitutional amendment into four ballot questions.
<p>The ruling, which appears technical, is nonetheless significant for those who favor the reforms. That's because they believe their package has a better chance if put to one up-or-down vote. Plus, Ohio is a presidential battleground that's tilted red in recent years and anything that could boost turnout is likely to favor Democrats.</p><p>The Secure and Fair Elections Amendment would bring about automatic and same-day voter registration, a guarantee of a month of in-person early voting and routine post-election audits to verify that election results are accurate.</p><p>Advocates for the package, a collection of mostly progresisve group called Ohioans for Secure and Fair Elections, still must gather more than 400,000 signatures of registered voters by July 1 to get the amendment on the Nov. 3 ballot. </p><p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p>Had the high court ruled the other way, that signature threshold would have been quadrupled — and essentially impossible to meet without a miraculous disappearance of the coronavirus.</p><p>The Ohio Ballot Board, which includes the secretary of state and four appointed members, had voted in March to break up the proposed amendment into separate questions. The subsequent lawsuit notes that LaRose had already stated his opposition to the package and that dividing the question would hurt its chances of going before the votes.</p><p>The Supreme Court did reject the request by proponents of the amendments for additional time to gather signatures.</p><p>Approval would make Ohio the 17th state that automatically registers eligible residents when they do business with the motor vehicle bureau. Most are Democratic strongholds and just two, Colorado and Michigan, are on the list of remotely possible swing states this fall. </p><p>Adopting the package would permit voters to register and cast ballots at polling locations during early voting and on Election Day, similar to the laws on the books in 21 states. The deadline is now 30 days beforehand, one of the longest lead times in the country.</p><p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p><p>Ohio has famously been carried by the winner of every presidential election since 1964, and no Republicans has ever won the White House without it. President Trump is counting on its 18 electoral votes, but his edge in recent statewide polling has slipped now that former Vice President Joe Biden has secured the Democratic nomination.</p>
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