Voter Turnout

Voter turnout in Juneau has been abysmal for several years. The city has not seen more than 50 percent of voters participate in a municipal elections in 20 years. As a prospective city official, what can be done to increase civic engagement?

One thing is to publicize that you can vote two weeks in advance. I’ve made small cards up I’m giving out to everybody I know. You don’t have to wait until the last day to vote. You don’t have to wait until October 7. You can start voting on September 22. You can vote at City Hall. You can vote at the mall. It’s very convenient. You can do it when you’re thinking about it. You don’t have to wait for the last day. So that’s one thing we can already do right now, which is get out the word – you can vote early. You don’t have to wait until the last day.

Another thing is to consider consolidating elections. Why do we have a municipal election in October and a state election in November? I don’t know all the ramifications of those things, but it’s hard for people to get to the polls. Let’s maybe let them go to the polls once instead of twice in the fall. That’s just an idea.

Another idea is work with other communities to lower the voter registration age to 16. Register kids in school, have a whole curriculum on civic engagement, on voting and where they can actually vote – not a fake vote, not a pretend vote, but an actual real vote where their voice matters and start the habit of voting early. So those are things we can do to encourage people to vote.

I think it comes down to just making sure that people are aware of the issues that are going on and to let people know that their vote counts, and that when they exercise their right to vote it’s their chance to be the boss. And I think that these municipal elections are very important, because each vote counts. There have been some very close races in the past, and I hope folks realize that their vote really does matter in these municipal elections, and it’s their chance to exercise their right to tell us what needs to happen.

I’ve been thinking about this because running for office you don’t want more than 10 percent of the population to think they want you to be a representative. In the area of media, I thought that if the newspaper could have some sort of crawler on the head that said kind of like at Christmas time: “It’s 21 days until Christmas.” If it said “21 days ‘til October” and keep that in there, to help get that in people’s minds. Push that into the social media area into Facebook, and into the various websites that are used throughout the community and the school district to help reinforce that. Another thought is that the Borough have a policy that limits the number of municipal elections a year. There have been so many elections, and people that I know that are responsible voters and want to vote are confused because they’re not sure. You know, “the areawide Assembly election is going to be in November. What was in that last election with the primaries?” I’m thinking that, as a Borough, if we just decided that we would have our municipal elections – including whatever bonds come up or sales tax votes – if could have those once a year, that you could focus more people, there would be more issues on the ballot, and hopefully foster more involvement with the people.

How to get people to care about who runs city government? We keep reaching out. I try and make it a point to answer the emails that come in, to return the phone calls I get, because when people want to talk to their elected officials they deserve to get an answer. I have spoken to every school class I’ve ever been asked to speak to. Sometimes the scheduling has been tricky. We make it happen, so that young people in Juneau have a chance to see and to meet their elected officials and to talk with us and we get to hear what they think as well. They need to know that it matters what they think, and it matters what they have to say with their vote.

I do everything I can to make myself available to the public broadly. So I’ve got an Assembly Facebook page, and people sometimes post questions and get into discussions with me there. I’ve got a Twitter feed, anybody can find me and reach me there.

Ultimately, I think the work that we do and people’s interest in it is going to drive them to or away from the polls. I have always tried to make a priority of listening carefully to what people say to the Assembly. Whether they come down to the Assembly chambers in person or whether they get in touch with us electronically, to be responsive and when necessary when people make a good argument for why we’re going in the wrong direction to turn things around. That’s the heart and soul of it. I think we have to be responsive to people. And I’ve tried to do that, and I hope people will continue to get in touch with me.

I also think that we can ask a little more often and a little more publicly. I don’t think we ought to have an empowered board to run our city pools. But in the end I voted to put the question on the ballot, because I think it’s fair to ask the voters what they think. I think what we have seen is that enough people who care about those pools and who watch closely how they’re managed came to us in the budget process with ideas to do a more efficient job, to do a better job. We don’t need an empowered board to look at those suggestions and to take those suggestions. We as an Assembly can do that. And my concern is that if we give a board a target and say, ‘You will raise this percentage of what it costs to run the pools,’ we’re going to start pricing low-income people out of our pools. And that’s something the Assembly needs to be accountable for doing or not doing. I voted to put the question on the ballot so that the voters can tell us what they think of that question. Whether they think it’s a good idea, or whether they share that concern that people in Juneau who don’t make a lot of money and can’t a dramatically increased set of pool fees may not be able to have access to those public facilities.

Once again, this has to start when people are young. Voter apathy is something that’s very hard for me to understand because as a young person at the dinner table, we were encouraged to discuss current events (and) issues, pick a side, and it was just fun banter with my parents, mostly my father, regarding the topic of the day. Generally, my dad would tell me the topic of the day at breakfast and I had to be prepared to discuss the topic of the day at dinner. But until dinner, I didn’t even know which side of the issue I would need to present. That made me a very active participant in what was going on in my community and in my country and in the world. So, by educating young people, — and I’m not saying that every parent has to be as extreme as my father was – in bringing this issue up with a few other people I knew, I’ve already been invited to come to a few schools and talk to classes of fifth graders about why it so important. Beyond telling kids that this election was missed by three votes or this one by two votes, make the children an active participant in what’s going on in the community. I think that the only way we’re going to get that is present them with a problem and ask them what they think about it. Eventually, they will become more active.

I think there’s a lot of opportunity for public comment and there’s still a lot of people who already enjoy that. I think if we advertise public comment and put the word out more that people can come in, that would increase civic engagement. One of the big things I want to try to encourage, in every election at least for the last four, I’ve early voted. I think that if there were big events that the city endorsed, people actually going out and voting early instead of just on the voting day, you’ll get all the people who normally vote on the you’ll also get all the people who can’t make it or forget. I think expanding the how much time people have to vote is really great.

Well, I don’t think the problem is really one of awareness. The people in Juneau generally know about what’s going on. I hear people talk all the time, giving strong opinions on matters, and then they just don’t go out and vote. So I think we need to encourage voters, encourage people who aren’t registered to get registered and make it as easy as possible for them to do so. And then, make sure that they understand that their vote really does count. Even if they’re sure the way that they’re going to vote isn’t the side that’s going to win, it’s still important that they exercise that right.

I think consistent education. I know when I was coming up, it was a uh, used to call it civics class. I’ve had this discussion with several people, and it’s a good point of educating at a young age, and saying, “Hey, you know what? This is kind of sort of what civics is about. It’s about government, it’s about serving your community.”

You know, about doing all the — looking at all the benevolent organizations used to be, you know, not a lot of participation in any more. And all those are drivers that would teach young people, “Hey, you know what? You need to participate. Your vote does actually count. Here’s where your vote counts.”

And being a part of — just not living her, but being a citizen of here, as much as anything else. The other thing from a voting aspect, is, going back to the education standpoint, for anything, ballot initiatives, big contentious items, those types of things, just consistently pushing out to the public, via media as much as anything else, cause that is such a quick and large informer of the masses nowadays. And you can get your word out very accurately and with both points of view, and look up every angle you can and those types of things.

But I think it just a consistent encouragement of people to be involved with their community. And yep, through all those things your vote does actually count.