Joe Mathews, who studies California politics and government, here suggests that low turnout in Los Angeles city elections might be increased if the city had partisan elections for city office. Los Angeles, and all California cities and counties, have non-partisan elections for their own officers.
Low turnout in Los Angeles city elections would increase more if they served all voters free Saffron & Rose ice cream.
Have a quorum. Say 25% of registered voters. If the quorum is not met, cancel the results of the election and hold a new election in two months. After 3 tries, cancel the city, school district or other governmental body, for lack of interest.
Have Dean Logan pick 1000 non-voters at random. Give the list to Joe Mathews. Let Mathews visit the non-voters to find out why they didn’t vote. If he visited 4 per day, he could blog daily for a year (weekends off).
Matthews writes, “As a legal and political matter, state leaders would have to authorize this grand experiment …”. In fact, it would require a state constitutional amendment (see Article II Section 6).
ONE election per year.
P.R. partisan legislative and nonpartisan App.V. (executive – judicial).
How many ILLEGAL INVADERS are in L.A. County ???
As I write this comment, it is Saturday, January 31. The Institute of Governmental Studies is holding a big meeting in Berkeley on various topics concerning the California 2014 election. At 1:15 pm a 90 minute session will start titled, “Who Showed Up, Who Stayed Home, and Why: Calif. Turnout in 2014.” The panelists are the Executive Director of the Cal. Republican Party, the Director of the Field Poll, and three others. The discussion is moderated by Seema Mehta, a political writer for the Los Angeles Times. I had intended to go but other things interfered. It is being recorded, and also I believe a few friends of mine will be in the audience. It will be interesting to hear about what the panel says.