A city councilor sent me this last night;
I’m considering putting together a 3 month task group to look at plurality/majority/approval voting, vote centers and moving date to match primary. Not sure where I stand on primary date and approval voting but I want to push the discussion.
It is worth the discussion for sure.
This is a reaction to the last election being so poorly attended. There are many factors as to why the turnout was so low. Closed government is the main reason, but there are several.
I am opposed to having the election during the primary because that is a partisan election. Just look at the ballot in Sioux Falls today, good luck finding a Democrat or Indy, it’s ALL Republicans. So bad idea. Indies and Dems would stay home.
I live in District 10 and the only person on the ballot was Democratic candidate for president (I am a registered Indy, and the Dems are nice enough to let me vote with them 🙂 even though the state party has turned into a bunch of agists (I guess age discrimination is okay with them).
It would also be confusing to voters as to why some candidates have a letter behind their name and some don’t. I think if we had open primaries it would work because it takes the partisanship out of the election, but I am not sure it will pass in November, people in both party’s leadership seem to be opposed. Since they made the change in Alaska they have seen more common sense, moderate candidates from both parties and the extremists seem to be thrown to the wayside. WE NEED THAT IN SOUTH DAKOTA! Sixty years of one-party rule has only held our state back. That and they like to destroy taxpayer property with holy water 🙁
Vote centers sound good in concept, but they usually just confuse voters. Keep consistent precincts and polling locations and that would improve voter turnout. Give them more places to vote, not less.