WAJR’s Dave Wilson was kind enough to invite me onto his radio show “Talk of the Town” Monday (Oct. 7) morning to discuss Morgantown City Council’s disappointing refusal to put the election change amendment in front of voters.
(If you’d like to listen to that episode, you can find it on wajr.com; scroll to the bottom of the page. Heads up: Much of this commentary will tread the same ground.)
A little background: Morgantown holds its municipal elections in April of odd-numbered years, completely separate from other elections. The last city election was in 2023 and the next will be in 2025. Voter turnout for these elections is always paltry: Less than 13% of Morgantown’s registered voters participated in 2023.
Morgantown City Council pondered a charter amendment that would have moved the city’s election onto the county ballot (e.g., the May primaries). City charters can be amended one of two ways: by council passing an ordinance to approve the amendment, as long as there are no citizen objections, or by putting the amendment up for a citizen vote.
Star City and Westover have already moved their elections. Westover did so through an ordinance that received no objections. Star City had put it to a vote. Granville recently decided to put the matter before their voters, and Morgantown decided last week not to do the same.
There are two main advantages to moving a city election to the county ballot: It saves money and it increases voter participation.
It cost Morgantown about $40,000 to put on the last city-only election. The Monongalia County Clerk will allow municipalities to add their races/ballot measures to the county ballot for free. There’s tens of thousands of dollars in instant savings right there.
The more important part, to me at least, is that moving the municipal election to the county ballot vastly increases voter turnout. And we have the evidence to prove it.
I started crunching the numbers for The Dominion Post back in July when Granville was considering a similar move, and revisited the numbers in August when Morgantown first pondered the election amendment.
As mentioned, neighboring Star City and Westover recently moved their elections to the county ballot. Compared to its last standalone election, Star City’s voter participation tripled from around 100 to around 300. Westover’s skyrocketed from around 130 to around 800.
For their first time on the county ballot this past May, both municipalities saw voter turnout of around 28% (people who voted as a proportion of total registered voters). And that makes sense — primary elections usually get a voter turnout around 30%.
As I said on “Talk of the Town,” democracy works best when more people engage with the process. Voting is the most direct way we influence government. So we should want to make voting accessible to as many people as possible — and sometimes that means making it more convenient.
What I never quite got around to saying was this: With its 4-3 vote (Mayor Joe Abu-Ghannum, Deputy Mayor Jenny Selin and councilors Bill Kawecki and Louise Michael) not to put the amendment in front of voters, Morgantown City Council robbed us of our choice.
And for what reason? Selin has said she doesn’t want city elections to get overshadowed by national elections. And back in 2018, Bill Kawecki said (on recording) that it was better to have informed voters — read: quality over quantity.
I understand their points, but I don’t think those concerns negate the advantages of moving the city election to the county ballot.
When there are state and national elections going on, people are more attuned to what’s going on in politics and already aware of upcoming elections. On off years, they tune out. We see that even in the difference between voter participation during presidential election years and midterm election years.
Yes, that does mean there are more politicians vying for people’s attention — but at least people are paying attention. Moving the city election to the county ballot would mean candidates for city office would have to put greater time and effort into campaigning in order to cut through the rest of the political noise.
Maybe some of our current councilors aren’t willing to put in that effort. Maybe they’re afraid that Morgantown’s residents would prefer to have city elections during the May primaries, so they won’t let it go in front of the voters at all.
In our editorials at The Dominion Post, we’d periodically discuss (often in relation to Morgantown City Council) how perception could be more important than reality. And right now, the perception is four of city council’s seven members are more concerned with maintaining their political power (see also council’s decision not to pursue redistricting maps that would move Michaels into Selin’s ward) than with fostering a better democracy.
J. Nelson - Writer 