Off-year elections do matter

The right to vote is the lifeblood of our democracy. Registered citizens can exercise that right on Tuesday, November 4. It's called an "Off-Year" election, distinguished from "Presidential" and "Midterm" elections. While descriptive, the term is a tad dismissive. It refers to general elections held in odd-numbered years when most of the issue and candidate races take place only at the municipal and county levels. No national or state-wide issues. Ohioans will vote on candidates for mayor, city council members, trustees, local treasurers, municipal judges, and school board members. Some communities will vote on levies having to do with funding of local services, safety issues, libraries, parks, paving of streets, trash collection, law enforcement and the like. These are not distant, abstract matters. For example, parents with school-age children are especially interested in board consideration of curriculum, textbooks and after-school programs. They can speak with board members and attend board meetings. The evidence of low past turnouts suggests that off-year elections are deemed less important than the others. Over the past half century the turnout percentage among the voting eligible population in U.S. presidential elections averages nearly 60 percent. Compare that with midterm voter percentages that dip to about 40 percent, with off-year percentages coming in significantly lower. One factor affecting low turnout is that voters are less aware of municipal ballot issues than of national issues. Far less money is spent advertising. (Certainly the hyped fanfare of presidential and midterm elections is absent.) Often there are not enough competitive races, so it appears to matter less. Craig Kelly reports in The Lima News that, laying issues aside, "with the exception of the city's school board, none of the races in Lima are contested this year." Looking northward to Findlay, Denise Grant writes in The Courier, again not on issues: "With only a handful of contested races on the November ballot, most Findlay government seats will go unchallenged this election." "Why vote?" some will say. "What's the point?" Casting a broader net, the national mood can be a negative factor in off-year elections. In this time of political discontent, the current political agenda fails even to address the sense that we are losing control over our national lives. Is it surprising that millions of voters rationally conclude that our major political leaders so often talk nonsense? Or that their candidates are tied to corporate interests whose lobbyists buy their votes? Or that elected officials refuse to act responsibly on crucial issues such as the lack of adequate health insurance for millions of Americans, the wildly out-of-control federal spending, and the increasing concentration of wealth? Not since the 1920s has economic inequality risen so sharply. The danger is that all this sets people apart, undermining a sense of commonality. All this plays into the "Why Vote? mindset. Even politically interested citizens may conclude that their time is better spent running their businesses or raising their families. It also serves those who simply wish to protest against a system deemed illegitimate or corrupt. Although it is understandable why many today in may refuse to vote this November, there are sufficient reasons not to throw in the towel. We ought not to make the "perfect" the enemy of the "good." Old mental tapes formed in schooldays continue to play, bringing up a thousand memories of teachers and parents saying that democratic theory converts to practice best when we participate in self-government. We hunger for community and believe with Lincoln that government should be of, by, and for the people, and knowing with Jefferson that the strongest bulwark against irresponsible government is an educated citizenry that votes. We vote because Liberty depends on it. We vote to practice civic duty. We vote to join with others in an act of freedom. And we vote to counter single-issue zealots and intolerant groups who skew voting patterns. Sermonizing that voting is a civic duty and an act of self-interest, perhaps even a moral obligation, will not convert the cynic and the skeptic. But having served as a poll worker for nearly two decades, in the room on election days I've witnessed a mobile form of poetry as Citizens arrive to cast ballots, perhaps speak briefly with others, and then depart. Such occasions refresh hopes that all may come to embrace the magic of democracy. Ron Lora, a native of Bluffton, is professor of history emeritus at the University of Toledo.