Saving American Elections: A Diagnosis and Prescription for a He ...

Contests for the state legislature—law-making bodies that, thanks to the increasing power of state governments, have been making more and more of the important decisions that affect citizens’ lives—engage even fewer voters than statewide contests. This can be observed both in states which hold separate elections for the state legislature and in states where legislators are selected simultaneously with statewide and federal officers (indicated by additional ballot falloff). In 2003, when New Jersey and Virginia (which hold legislative elections in odd-numbered years) selected their state legislators and no statewide officers, respectively 27.6 and 25 percent of the eligible public voted.²⁵

Local electoral contests generally see the poorest level of participation—particularly if they are not held along with other elections, if they are nonpartisan, and if they have a weak mayor type of local government (a form of local government in which mayoral duties are split between a mayor and a city manager).²⁶ Figure 1.8 shows the voting levels for a number of cities. Average participation rates from 1974 to 1989 ranged from fewer than three in ten of voting-age citizens voting in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to under one in ten voting in Dallas, Texas. The numbers are similarly low when voter turnout is calculated as a percentage of registered voters. Between 1988 and 2001, only about one-third of registered voters voted in city elections in Boston, about one-fourth voted in Los Angeles city elections, and about one-fifth voted in local elections in Pensacola, Florida, and Austin, Texas.²⁷ Concerning participation in local primary elections, this satirical excerpt from The Onion is apropos:

As one might expect, turnout in these contests is miniscule.