[ncdnhc-discuss] Voter turnout in Michigan school board elections

[Kent Crispin]

On Fri, Jun 07, 2002 at 03:28:32PM -0400, James Love wrote:
> "In almost half of Michigan school districts fewer than 5% of eligible
> voters participated in the 2000 school board election"
> 
> http://www.epc.msu.edu/publications/databrief/databrief5.pdf
> 
> Voter turnout averaged 7.8% in school board elections in 2000. Turnout
> ranged from .3% to 60% of registered voters. In almost half of Michigan
> school districts fewer than 5% of eligible voters participated in the 2000
> school board election. Three-quarters of dis tricts had turnouts of 10% or
> less.  Not all eligible citizens register to vote, so the percentage of
> eligible citizens voting in school board elections is even lower than the
> 7.8% turnout among registered voters.

Thanks -- this is a document I can cite later.  At the very beginning it
says:

  School board members are democratically accountable to the voters in
  their communities.  If citizens are unhappy with the performance of
  their schools, they can elect a new board.  Unfortunately, Michigan
  has historically had very low voter turnouts for school board
  elections.  Low turnouts reduce the effectiveness of school board
  elections as a mechanism for democratic accountability.  When only a
  few people vote, school board members are only held accountable by
  those few rather than by the larger community.  Low voter turnouts
  also increase the likelihood that a small group with a special agenda
  will be able to swing a school board election. 

The last line bears repeating, since it is so germane to our situation. 
It says:

  "Low voter turnouts also increase the likelihood that a small group
  with a special agenda will be able to swing a school board election."

-- 
Kent Crispin                               "Be good, and you will be
kent at songbird.com                          lonesome."  -- Mark Twain