Doug Hamilton: Even-year elections are even better

Supporter Doug Hamilton submitted an op-ed to the Daily Camera in support of the ballot measure, we are reposting that here. (paywall)

Moving City Council elections to even years, in line with federal, state, and county-wide elections will drive greater participation of the electorate in municipal elections. This will lead to council people that better represent the views of the entire population.

Here are some facts about even-year elections in Boulder that show they drive greater participation:

1. Nearly twice as many Boulder residents vote in even years elections compared to odd years.

2. Voting precincts with the highest racial diversity in Boulder are significantly more likely to vote in even-year elections.

3. While the disparity in voter participation carried across all age groups, it is highest among young voters and renters who participate in far greater numbers in even- vs. odd-year elections. It is critical to bring young people into our local elections to strengthen our democracy.

Unfortunately, odd-year elections attract a demographic that doesn’t look like Boulder as a whole. This fact has consequences in the types of elected officials that we elect and who those elected officials see as their constituents. I was saddened to see that Bob Yates, Sam Weaver and Steve Pomerance have written against the measure in its current draft form. When I see the statistics, I really don’t understand why they wouldn’t want all voices in Boulder to be heard.

In Bob Yates’s monthly campaign newsletter, he states, without citing any facts or studies, that moving municipal elections to even years will cause “ballot fatigue.” His rationale is that adding one to six additional names to the ballot will cause folks to be disinterested and give up because of the length of the ballot. But the facts say otherwise, Los Angeles and Phoenix saw increases in voter participation in “down ballot” municipal races between 40% to 60%.

Yates further describes that the purpose of maintaining odd-year voting is to elicit “quality” votes over “quantity.” He doesn’t explain the difference between quality and a non-quality vote, so, I assume it’s a euphemism. GOP lawmakers in recent years have made similar arguments to impose voter restrictions under the pretext that some voters are just too ignorant to vote. In the Jim Crow south, this argument was used to justify impossible poll tests for Black voters — denying them access to voting. Who knows what Mr. Yates meant?

Pomerance, a former city council person with a graduate degree in mathematics, takes the position that voters just need to have better information and the city needs to do a better job of voter outreach during odd-year elections. Just like Mr. Pomerance, it’s a tough concept for my long-retired mother and in-laws to grasp, but when you are hustling every day to go to school, or pay rent, or buy groceries, or raise children you may not even know an election is happening during an off-year, let alone have time to research all the issues.

Weaver, in an odd piece published by the Daily Camera on July 3rd, 2022, begins his writing against even-year elections by telling us his horror over the overturning of Roe. It shocked me that he failed to see a connection between the small number of justices on the Supreme Court voting on a fundamental human right and the smaller electorate participating in odd-year elections. It is pretty clear when your “decision makers” don’t adequately represent your entire population, you get bad decisions — even-year elections mitigate this outcome by ensuring all voices are heard.

Nonetheless, Weaver’s biggest heartburn with the measure was with the mechanics of moving to even-year elections. Since Weaver’s piece was published, the City Council addressed those core concerns by amending how even-year elections would be implemented. In the measure now under consideration, even-year elections would begin in 2026, the mayoral election would begin as planned in 2023 with Ranked Choice Voting, and the terms of council members elected in 2023 and 2025 would be shortened to three years to implement the transition.

The math is clear that even year elections will drive greater voter participation by an electorate that looks like all of Boulder — and that’s a great thing for the city. If greater electoral participation is your goal, and I would argue it’s essential to a democracy truly made “for the people,” then even-year elections are a no-brainer.

Doug Hamilton is a parent, lawyer, engineer and human who believes in free public spaces and a more participatory society. He is a member of the Boulder Library Champions. Contact him at hamilton1801@aim.com or @doug_c_hamilton on twitter.