Bad Elections

And so many links

Taking a break today from extraordinary threats to US democracy to whine a bit on ordinary failures of US democracy.

It was election day here in San Antonio on Saturday, and I can’t even tell you how many thing were wrong with it. Let’s see…

• It was election day on Saturday. In May. That’s when we hold our regular mayoral and city council elections. Not in November, when people expect elections.

• Not just any Saturday in May: It was the final weekend of our local holiday. Not only are many of us busy celebrating, but because it was the last weekend of Fiesta, lots of things were closed on the day before Election – giving those who aren’t big Fiesta fans a three-day weekend they might have spent traveling.

• It’s a non-partisan election, so all the candidates appear on the same ballot, with the top two advancing to a run-off if no one breaks 50%.

• Which wasn’t going to happen, because there were 27 candidates on the ballot, eight of whom were running (more or less) serious campaigns.

• Of those eight, six were Democrats, and two were Republicans. Oh, yeah - everyone who pays close attention knows the party alignments, at least for the major candidates. This called for strategic voting for Democrats; voting for a favorite also-ran could have produced two Republicans in the run-off, even though the city tilts solidly to the Democrats.

• Democrats also might have voted strategically if they cared, say, more about beating one of the competitive Democrats than about how they ranked other Democrats. Unfortunately, there was hardly any polling out there, and it wasn’t easy to have a lot of confidence about how the race was structured.

• The same thing in miniature was going on in several of the city council districts; my leans-GOP district had two major Republican candidates, one major Democrat, and four others who I have no idea about.

• On top of all that, I doubt if there are 100 people in this city who could give a coherent account of what the city does, what the county does, and what is the responsibility of other local governments.

• Put it all together, and we wound up with turnout below 10% of registered voters. Just over 100,000 votes in a city of 1.5 million people.

I like federalism, with meaningful subnational governments, despite its history (especially in places such as Texas). But this is a farce. Consolidate elections, reduce ballot length, make voting easier, and let parties operate in the open by eliminating non-partisan elections. The US would still have more elections than anyone else, but this is just too much.

At any rate, and bringing back an old feature, this was my first election day of the two- and four-year cycles, and I cast three votes (mayor, city council, and a bond issue). Next up will be mayoral and city council runoffs. I can’t wait.

1. Dan Drezner on Donald Trump, inept at making deals.

2. Nadia E. Brown and Annie Selak at Good Authority on Pope Francis.

3. Daniel Nichanian spoke with Judith Brett about mandatory voting in Australia.

4. Deborah J. Schildkraut on US states and their symbols.

5. Kim Yi Dionne on changes at the World Bank.

6. Stan Oklobdzija and Andrew Leber on standing up for international students in the US.

7. Matthew Green at Mischiefs of Faction on Trump’s 100 days.

8. Seth Masket on political violence.

9. Miranda Yaver on COBRA and health insurance.

10. Norm Ornstein on Paul Volcker.

11. Matthew Shugart on the Canadian elections.

12. Don Moynihan on Trump’s budget.

13. And Henry Farrell gives us “Brian Eno’s Theory of Democracy.”