Get Out The Vote

Group files signatures to move local elections to November

by Mary Lou Wendell

A large group of folks who want to move city elections from May to November filed about 5700 signatures last week with the city clerk, who now must verify the names in order to allow the issue to come before voters in November.

The group behind the upcoming ballot question, Members of the November Elections Coalition, include a number of people who fought unsuccessfully in 1997 to change the city charter to allow for a mayoral election. Currently, city councilors appoint the city's mayor, who serves in the largely ceremonial post for one year. The new coalition members include Portland Community Action, Portland Taxpayers Association, the Greater Portland Council of the Maine AFL-CIO, several city councilors, school board members and a host of state representatives from Portland, including John McDonough, Michael Quint, Michael Saxl, Elizabeth Townsend, and Michael Brennan.

Brennan says the idea behind the ballot initiative is simply to get more people to vote in local elections, which was the idea behind the elected mayor effort as well. Brennan sites low-voter turnout and the high cost of elections as reasons for his support for the upcoming ballot question. "Moving the elections will save taxpayer dollars and increase participation in a democratic process," Brennan says.

Support for the change makes sense, Brennan says, that is unless you are a candidate running for a local election. "All you have to do is reach those people who vote," Brennan says. "And if only 5 to 10 percent of the people consistently vote over time, you're going to target those voters as opposed to everyone else."

The coalition took up their signature drive after the city council voted 6-3 last August to keep the question off the November ballot.