The U.S. arguably has too many elections for the electorate as a whole to handle — see this The Atlantic article by Jerusalem Demsas — but any proposal to change that would of course take time to implement. Actions like having House members serve for four years rather than two would require a constitutional amendment, while others like getting rid of judicial retention elections or not making the county coroner be an elected position would take time and could have unexpected consequences. Larger proposals to change how voting works could take even longer.
One may well ask oneself “do I have any real knowledge to judge whether the coroner is doing a good job?” and sit it out — and perhaps be justified in doing so. However, some of the “small” elections can really matter:
- This year, Georgia’s Public Service Commission is having the first contested election in years. Do you pay for electricity? Having a commission that is representative can matter a lot with respect to power bills, renewable energy, and reliability. The catch, unfortunately, is that it could take years or even decades for changes in policy to truly become visible.
- Consider your local library’s board, assuming it’s elected. How interesting could that be? Everybody loves the library, after all. While that may be largely true, that doesn’t mean that everybody is on board with the notion that the library should have books for everybody in the community. Consequently, it can really matter who gets elected lest board takeovers lead to restrictions on what’s available.
- Consider judicial retention elections. These are probably the canonical example of elections that are difficult for voters to meaningfully engage with. After all, most people generally do what they can to never end up with a front-row seat to see how well a judge performs their duties, and law is a complicated thing in any event. On the other hand, judges do have a lot of power, and as more judicial retention elections get contested, the more likely that organized groups are going to try to slant the courts.
Therefore, please consider the small elections: an election for an obscure position today may turn into something that materially affects your life tomorrow.
