One of my main concerns is that by moving municipal elections to the same cycle as state and national elections our municipal elections will become partisan by default. There might be a case for partisan municipal elections in larger cities (maybe over 30,000) where voters may be unfamiliar with the candidates, but in smaller towns and villages, it will dramatically decrease the pool of potential candidates since "unaffiliated" is the largest group of registered voters. In our village of approx. 3,400, council members serve voluntarily (no stipend) and deal with quality-of-life issues, not national debates. Requiring unaffiliated voters to gather signatures will keep many very qualified residents from running, to the detriment of our governance.
My March 15 op-ed opposing even-numbered years for municipal elections is here - https://www.hendersonvillelightning.com/four-seasons-politics/12563-even.html
One of my main concerns is that by moving municipal elections to the same cycle as state and national elections our municipal elections will become partisan by default. There might be a case for partisan municipal elections in larger cities (maybe over 30,000) where voters may be unfamiliar with the candidates, but in smaller towns and villages, it will dramatically decrease the pool of potential candidates since "unaffiliated" is the largest group of registered voters. In our village of approx. 3,400, council members serve voluntarily (no stipend) and deal with quality-of-life issues, not national debates. Requiring unaffiliated voters to gather signatures will keep many very qualified residents from running, to the detriment of our governance.