Voter turnout dependent on local races

Voter turnout seems to be dependent on the competitiveness of local races, southeast Iowa auditors say.

Following the 2017 legislative session, state legislators in Iowa decided to combine city and school elections, hoping to not only cut costs but also increase voter turnout for school elections, which had traditionally been held in September rather than November.

Following the inaugural combined election on Nov. 5, the state as a whole had a 16.58 percent voter turnout, which fell under the 35 percent estimated by the Secretary of State, Paul Pate. In southeast Iowa, turnout generally fell below the state average in counties with mostly uncontested races. Still, with generally larger crowds showing up to vote for city elections, school board contests did get more participation.

In Jefferson County, a race between three candidates for the mayorship may have helped boost voter turnout to close to 25 percent. 2,779 of 11,124 registered voters came out on Election Day to cast their ballot.

Abbie DeKleine, the second deputy auditor, noted a similar pattern of higher voter turnout during elections with contested races. DeKleine noted that the 2017 school board election in Fairfield saw 22 percent of voters turnout because 13 candidates ran for three open seats. In 2015, however, the school board race only saw several hundred voters cast their ballots, a steep decline in participation. For that reason, with no contested races in the 2019 school board election for Jefferson County school districts, the school board races most probably benefited from the contested mayoral race, DeKleine said.

In Henry County, voter turnout hovered at just above 10 percent, which was lower than the turnout for the previous city election in 2017. About 1,061 voters (11.88 percent) out of the 8,929 showed up on Election Day two years ago to vote for city positions, which saw four contested races for city council seats countywide. 780 (a little more than 5 percent) out of more than 13,000 registered voters showing up to the school election in September of 2017. This year, with the combined election, 1,494 of 13,968 registered voters cast their ballots.

Henry County Auditor Shelly Barber noted that more people turned out individually when the elections were separate (1,841 as compared to 1,494) but that overall, school board elections were getting more ballots cast because they were on the same ticket as city elections. Barber also explained that ultimately, the turnout for the county seemed to remain low because 'there wasn't really any races.”

In elections with contested races, higher percentage of voters turned out.

'More turned out in New London for the school board. Hillsboro had a good turnout, voters in Salem came out for city council. Otherwise, if there was not a race, a lot of people didn't turn out because there wasn't anything to vote for. [Candidates were] bound to get in no matter how many people voted. People don't turn out when there's not any opposition to choose from,” Barber noted.

In New London, six candidates ran for three positions on the school board while Hillsboro held a contested race between three candidates for Mayor. Salem's school board also saw four candidates running for three open seats.

Barber noted that her office puts in notices in the paper as well as through the radio and provides information on their website to encourage eligible voters to show up on Election Day.

'It's always important for anyone to vote if they want to be heard. I've always been told that if you don't vote that you can't really complain about anything. That's your way to voice your feelings on things, to get people in [office] who you think can be better for the job. But then when you can't even get people to run and all you've got is one person for one seat, or two people for two seats, then it's a given, they're in. That's why most people don't bother to vote. I don't think people want to get involved, everybody's busy and everybody works. I don't know what else can be done to change the situation,” Barber said.

Dan Widmer, the auditor for Washington County, similarly echoed the impact of uncontested races on voter turnout.

'I know the goal [of the combined election] was to try to increase voter turnout and I understand that and I appreciate it, but I still think the overwhelming factor is whether there were races or not … I think that has an impact. When you look at it, there's only one candidate running, they're going to win, do we really need to go to the polls to vote?” Widmer explained.

In Washington County, voter turnout fell just below 10 percent with 1,494 of 15,100 registered voters turning up to the polls on Election Day. In the 2017 election, 1,970 of 9,333 registered voters, about 21 percent, turned out for the city elections. Widmer contributes the turnout to more contested races, including one for the Mayor of Washington. Washington similarly saw lower numbers for the school election in 2017, with 1,037 voters casting ballots, close to 7 percent of registered voters.

Widmer explained that the overall turnout seemed ' pretty consistent for city and school elections,” and further reiterated that it 'just depends so much on a particular race, or some public measure that really interests people.”

While Widmer and Barber agreed on the impact of contested races on local elections, they had differing views on whether the combined elections would cut costs for schools.

Widmer felt that overall, schools would benefit because '[the combined election] is cutting the pie into a lot more pieces, a lot more players are involved,” meaning costs would be split between more entities. Barber noted that even with shared costs, the combined election has different stipulations, including more precincts and more workers as well as longer polling hours than is typical for school board elections, and that she 'wasn't sure how it would affect the schools” financially.