Dear Editor:
I read the weekend Reporter and found the administration’s idea to tag our municipal elections to the November general elections laudable. However, if we truly want to do this to increase voter turnout, our municipal elections should be tied to the presidential elections – those get the biggest turnout.
Either 2012 or 2016 would be optimum. Tying our election to the 2013 election would not support that purpose as efficiently. We should also note that our current mayor has already had three extra months in office – she started in August of 2009 so moving the municipal elections to November 2013 would essentially increase her time in office another seven months to a total of ten months.
I would suggest that if the Faulkner act allows municipalities to run their non-partisan elections at the same time as the general elections we move ours to November 2016 to give us the time we need as a community and de-politicize the concept a bit. Additionally we must be cognizant that if we do move our municipal elections to November and there is a need for a run-off the run-off will happen after Thanksgiving so our holiday season will be impacted by electioneering.
Thank you for your kind consideration.
John Stevens