Two-thirds of the country is in an election season right now. In 37 states, School Boards, Water and other Utility Boards, City Councils, Special Election vacancies, and state and local bond and ballot measures are being weighed and chosen.
Or at least I hope they are. I live in a state with one of the easiest and most secure voting systems and I know I have yet to submit my ballot. I will. I always do. But it keeps slipping my mind and so I know many have forgotten altogether.
Some of the problem is the election fatigue I hear much about from the pundits who frankly cause much of said exhaustion. Sure, it seems as if the last election cycle just wrapped up (and hasn’t actually ended, for many deluded and misled people) and the 2022 Midterm primaries will be before us before we blink. It is dizzying.
But mostly, I think the low turnout for these kinds of elections is because people don’t really grasp how critical this level of decision-making is for their day-to-day lives. The more local the jurisdiction making the decision, the greater the impact on how you live.
Also true is that the more local the decision-making, the more accessible the decision-makers themselves. And for direct ballot measures, voters themselves make the choices -this or that, yes or no- and who could be more accessible than oneself?
I’m starting to read Heather Cox Richardson’s book “How the South Won the Civil War.” Much of what she proposes as a fundamental American tension between inequality and freedom rings absolutely true in the larger national sphere, and of course is worked out at smaller scales as well. I haven’t even read enough of it to cite it further than to point you towards it, but as a member of the Southern diaspora, I have seen this conflict play out over and over again.
And indeed, this tension is constant here. America was built on both principles of exclusion and of rights, and much of our history can be described as the expansion of both. When looked at with this macro-view, the systems and entrenchments can feel overwhelmingly difficult to dismantle. It is easy for helplessness to set in.
That spiral can start with reasonable critiques and pushbacks against our political systems. And the slide is so easy because not a one of those critiques that make voting seem like a pointless exercise is actually false. There is way too much money involved. The wealthy are the only ones who can afford to run. Decisions feel made before we pull and levers or fill in any boxes. The choices in candidates are depressing.
And so apathy and hopelessness grow, and voter participation falls. It is hard to care about something you believe is both stacked against you and irrelevant to your life.
Local political action, even the simplest act of voting, can break through these obstacles.
Enticing, urging, engaging, bullying, teasing, bribing -these are all things I have done to get folks to vote over the decades. For the many, many of us for whom voting is not a regular and expected activity, there is generally a sense that any individual vote doesn’t really matter, and the issues are so abstract and distant that they are irrelevant.
Local ballot issues and races are the antithesis of all this. Last election cycle, I succeeded in getting a friend to vote for the first time in his life over an issue of pit bull legality. It honestly had not ever occurred to him that a ballot issue would impact his life, but he had family whose beloved pet was technically an illegal member of the household, and he wanted to change that. And maybe get his own dog.
Local issues reveal how crucial an individual vote is when the margins are tight. Local issues are often decided by scores of votes, or a few hundred. It is easy to see one’s own vote in action when the numbers are small.
Local issues give a community the most direct chance to affect policy.
Are you upset that Creationism is taught in school? Angry that Civics and Music have disappeared from our school day? Comprehend how an educated population benefits us all and care what’s in the curriculum? School Boards manage all of this. It is virtually assured that if you have an election next week, School Board Directors are being chosen.
That’s only one example, as the entire spectrum of local, regional, and statewide issues are like this. Many states and regions elect their utility commissioners, those people who set your power rates. Many decide bond and ballot measures that will set the direction of their own communities for decades to come.
Yes, Federal elections matter, but these ‘off-year’ Election Days are for those decisions unique to each place, specific to your own needs, and that will touch your life for years to come.
Find out what’s on the block where you are. Do some research and ask some questions. And in the name of all we call holy, please vote.