Don’t put school board elections on the November ballot
HB3563 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives would move school board elections from taking place annually in April to being placed on the November general election ballot every other year. The usual stated reason for this is that school board elections have low turnout resulting in board members who are unresponsive to parents. The unstated reason is that social conservatives believe this will make it easier for their candidates to win these elections. To quote H. L. Mencken, “For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” While there is a sound case to be made for altering the election calendar, the change offered in HB3563 would create new difficulties but won’t necessarily even accomplish the unstated shift the proponents desire.
It is certainly true that school board elections have low turnout. However, municipal elections and special elections for propositions have similarly low voter turnout and nothing is being done to address these poorly attended plebiscites, which is especially problematic since propositions are often tax increases that have a much more direct effect on the public than the choice of who sits on a school board. In fact, most tax hike votes are deliberately placed on a ballot all by themselves. School board elections do attract the attention of those interested in how schools are run. If the low turnout is including all of the fairly small number of voters who actually care about education policy it’s hard to see how trying to involve a much larger number of voters who are neither concerned nor informed about the issues or candidates is going to be an improvement.
A significant problem that often goes unmentioned is ballot fatigue. This is the term for when voters working their way down a lengthy ballot decide to stop filling in a choice in races they don’t care about. This can be seen clearly in the totals posted at any precinct location after a general election, the further down the ballot the fewer people vote in each individual race. Not only is there the issue of voters just not marking a choice, many who do fill out all the races on their ballot are more likely to be just guessing on many of them. If you have never gone to the polls only to find a race where you did not recognize the names of any of the candidates for some county or judicial office feel free to dismiss the problem of ballot fatigue but I feel like I’m not losing anybody here.
With the issues of ballot fatigue and voters with zero information about candidates, the expectation by team red zealots of winning majorities on all the school boards is questionable. Reactionary activists are frequently outspoken to the degree of foolhardiness, such statements likely to be the only thing that a poorly informed voter might recall. With a much larger number of people going to the polls, building winning coalitions becomes more difficult, and more expensive. Nor would making these elections partisan be a solution, instead encouraging potential candidates to allow expediency rather than ideology to determine their party affiliation.
It would make sense to move school board candidate filing from early December, right after general elections and in the middle of holiday season, but the proposal in HB3563 of a November general election with a June primary which would mean an April filing period means a school board campaign season of eight months. Currently, a two candidate race lasts only five months and with more than two if one wins a majority in the primary it’s just three months. A better choice would be filing in January for an April election with a June runoff, if necessary(or enact ranked-choice voting and get rid of runoffs altogether). This lines up with most municipalities in the state. If propositions were prohibited from being the sole item on a ballot this would become a popular time to schedule those elections as well. These steps would increase turnout among interested voters without attracting those who are only interested in presidential and gubernatorial elections, thus retaining a more informed electorate while still reducing the overabundance of single issue and single race contests.
HB3563 is a poorly thought out attempt to gain partisan advantage in local public education administration. If it passes it won’t work as it’s proponents expect and might even reduce their influence. There are better ways to run elections but it will require thoughtful consideration without regard to which political gang might benefit.
