What if I told you that I have found a surefire way to decrease your community involvement in our local elections while at the same time increasing the costs for all the taxpayers? Probably wouldn’t be a popular idea and I am sure the emails and phone calls I would receive would not be nice. I am also sure it wouldn’t be a political winner for any politician.
However here in West Virginia we govern our state exactly that way. I am talking about the widespread, questionable practice of “off-cycle” elections. You know those special groups that hold elections in December, January, or any other time of the year apart from a Primary or General election.
The scheduling of elections at these odd times appears to be a deliberate strategy aimed at keeping voter turnout low. This in turn gives more influence to special groups that have a direct stake in the elections’ outcome.
Why do these groups prefer these off-cycle elections? It is simple, when these elections are held at odd times, few run-of-the-mill voters show up at the polls, but voters with a particular interest in these elections show up in full force. The low voter turnout election allows their policy goals to dominate.
Not only are these off-cycle elections a form of voter suppression they waste taxpayer money. For example, in Mercer County the School excess levy election on November 2, 2019, wasted $81,840.10 of taxpayer money to conduct the election. If it would have been held during a Primary or General election the cost would have been $0. In Raleigh County the School excess levy election on February 9, 2019, wasted $225,276.06 of taxpayer money. Across the state these out of cycle elections for levy elections and other local elections waste millions of taxpayer money when the cost would be $0 if the elections were just held during a Primary or General election.
The solution to fix this is HB 4353 (On Cycle Elections – Voter Turnout Act), passed by the West Virginia House of Delegates, this bill awaits a vote in the Senate.
It is time to stop this form of voter suppression, improve voter turnout, and stop the waste of taxpayer money. Contact your Senators and ask them to support this bill.