When do Local Elections Align with State + National Elections?
In a democracy, the will of the people and movements for change are harnessed into action through advocacy and elections. It’s important for constituents to be able to communicate seamlessly with public officials and vote in healthy elections.
Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Voting sometimes feels inefficient or cumbersome, and advocacy sometimes feels like it falls on deaf ears. There are myriad complex factors (turnout, fundraising, party dynamics, media coverage, etc.) for why sometimes voting and advocacy efforts fall short.
In this blog, we look at one of these factors: How elections (specifically local elections) are scheduled. Having to vote multiple times per year for various offices is believed to be one factor that reduces turnout in elections, especially among young voters in local elections. We pulled records of the hundreds of recent elections we’ve tracked in the U.S. and Canada to visualize patterns in how local elections are scheduled.
Local Elections are a Patchwork
Unlike many other democracies, the United States lacks “national local elections”. Instead, it features an unaligned patchwork of local, state, and national elections, with voting deadlines and procedures also differing across these boundaries. Most localities in Canada also hold elections on separate dates from provincial and national elections.
The graphic linked below shows the alignment of the most recent and next election date for 900 elected bodies in the United States and Canada.
Click here to view the interactive graphic (not mobile-friendly)
Breaking Down “Alignment”
We built this graphic (called a “swimlanes” diagram) using an open source component. For each elected chamber, we displayed the date of the next and most recent election.
Elections that align with the state or provincial elections are marked in blue. Elections that do not align with state elections are marked in yellow. States with lots of elections vertically aligned mean more voters vote on a single day.
Arizona is a state where most local elections align with elections for state legislature and governor.
In Pennsylvania, all local elections tracked in Cicero are held together in the off-year cycle, separate from state elections.
Florida is an example of a state with highly unaligned elections. This means local elections dates vary substantially depending on where you live.
One item to note is that most US states align their voting dates for state offices with elections for US Congress and the President. However several states -Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, Virginia, Kentucky — hold off-year state elections unaligned with the US Congress.
The impact of election alignment
Different voting dates for state and local elections is one factor that depresses turnout and participation. Though turnout in local, state, and national elections in the US has risen since 2016 (and both Democrats and Republicans expect turnout in the 2020 Presidential Election to break all-time records) there was previously a steady long term decline, particularly in local participation. Turnout in 144 larger U.S. cities decreased from 26.6 in 2001 to 21 percent in 2011, according to data from researches at the University of Wisconsin. Multiple inconsistent election dates is one factor believed to be causing this trend (along with a general lack of awareness about elections and the role of local government), in particular among young voters.
Some places have begun to take action. California in 2015 and Arizona in 2018 passed state laws requiring localities with low voter turnout at local elections to move those dates to align with state elections. Driven by supporters whose stated goals were to reduce costs and increase turnout, so far localities representing millions of voters including Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Glendale in California and Mesa in Arizona have realigned local voting with state elections.
Not all people agree that having misaligned local elections is a bad thing. There are constituencies that favor holding local elections separate from state elections. They say elections focused on only local issues make it easier to mobilize around local causes that do not align to state and national party politics. Local candidates also have less ability to reach the wide swaths of voters who turn out in major elections and risk the particularities of their race being overwhelmed by larger forces. There are also other ways to increase voter engagement without aligning election dates. For example, some states (like Texas) have local elections on Saturdays, and others (like Oregon) conduct elections entirely by mail. And others say the key is to build social norms around voting and community engagement through media and cultural institutions.
With federalist systems where individual states and provinces determine election rules, we will likely never see a fully aligned election calendar. However, recent voter turnout movements and a world in a pandemic are shifting these countries toward consolidated elections. We hope this graphic helps to shed light on the big picture of how elections work in the United States and Canada. And, as always, we’ll be keeping a close eye on upcoming elections. For a full feed of upcoming elections, follow us on Twitter.
