City Elections Moved to November 3, 2020

Courtesy of Councilman Fought's newsletter:

Question-4.  City elections, for City Council and the Mayor, are set for May. I understand they have now been changed to 3 November.  Is that correct? 

 

ANS-4.  Yes.  The Council made that decision at the 24 March Council Meeting, following considerable debate.  There were three general arguments:

 

1.  Delay the decision to make the change until we had more information.

2.  Move the date, but make it a date earlier than November, so as not to mix the local election with the national election.

3.  Move the date to November so as to coincide with the national elections.*

 

I voted in favor of changing the date to November and making it coincide with the national elections because:

 

1.  That gives voters the most time to get to know the candidates and understand their positions.

2.  Making the local election coincide with the national election would most likely assure the highest voter turnout.

3.  Having 1 election for local and national offices, would save $ and probably generate more attention, and less frustration or "election fatigue", than having 2 independent elections.

 

In my simple world, if you give voters the greatest opportunity to understand the issues and the candidates, and get the largest voter turnout, you will get the best results.  Only option 3 accomplished that, so I voted for option 3.