As voters weigh this year’s ballots, it’s a good time to consider changes that could improve elections as a tool for democratic decision-making. Many cities and states have made election reform a priority, resulting in higher turnout, better representation, and improved governance.
Nonpartisan Local Elections
While most cities and towns have nonpartisan elections, about one fourth elect council members on a partisan basis, according to the National League of Cities, including high-profile cities like New York City and Washington, D.C. And yet it was a New York mayor, Fiorello La Guardia, who famously said in 1937, “there is no Republican way of cleaning streets any more than there is a Democratic way of putting out a fire.”
Beyond the fact that most local issues are not partisan, elections among Democrats and Republicans disenfranchise unaffiliated voters in the primary elections and the minority party in most general elections, since cities tend to be dominated by one party or the other, and the candidate winning the primary typically wins the general.
A huge majority of All-America Cities have nonpartisan elections, including nine of this year’s winners. A winning city from 2024, and four-time All-America City, Louisville, Kentucky, switched to nonpartisan elections in 2024 after a commission convened to examine governance in the metro area, with commission members saying that local politics had been too divisive. With only one election occurring since that time, turnout this past May was 16% higher than a similar election in 2022.
Better Council Representation
A little over half of cities with 50,000+ residents have wards or districts, instead of electing council members at-large. In cities without districts, at-large elections can result in inadequate representation of particular communities, since there are often diverse interests among different parts of a city. While these interests may be a particular ethnic group located in one area of a city, it could also be a group with a particular political persuasion. I’ve heard people say that without a district for their area, their party wouldn’t be represented.
Our Model City Charter recommends districts for larger cities, with the size dependent on the diversity of a particular city. In some cases, this might mean that a city with only 10,000 residents should have districts, depending on whether there are diverse interests. Beyond this aspect, having a smaller area for an elected official makes a position more attainable for people without as many resources and makes representation more personal and accountable. As an example, a candidate may be able to knock on doors for a district of 20,000 residents, but not 200,000.
Decatur, Georgia, is an example of a small community with districts, with 25,000 residents and two districts and two city commissioners for each and one elected at-large. Another All-America City, Harlingen, Texas, has 72,000 residents, five districts with one city commissioner each and a mayor that is separately elected. In both cases, the towns have areas with distinct interests and city commissions that are diverse.
Changing Elected Positions to Appointed
Too many positions are on our ballots about which voters have little knowledge, and some of these positions are partisan for no reason. 18 states elect board members for Soil Conservation Districts, yet it’s likely that few voters know about these positions. In New York, many cities elect comptrollers with no eligibility requirements and who manage city budgets that should be overseen by mayors. In Colorado, county coroners are elected on a partisan basis, again without qualifications, as is the case for assessors in Arizona.
Judges, in particular, should not have to participate in competitive elections. 22 states have contested elections for judges, including eight that do so on a partisan basis. Judges are meant to be a check on the power of the executive and legislative branches and should not base their decisions on politics. Yet, even when judge elections are supposedly nonpartisan, like in the case of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, elections can become quite partisan and competitive, with the 2025 Wisconsin court race costing over $140 million.
An example of contrasting models regarding this issue are Rochester, New York, and Mt. Vernon, New York. Both cities elect councilmembers and a separate mayor, but Mt. Vernon separately elects a comptroller who oversees the budget, something that has led to disputes between the mayor, council and comptroller that were partly to blame for a downgraded bond rating and a financial crisis that one mayor described by saying, “we’ve been operating in crisis mode probably for the last decade.”
Other Structural Reforms
Cities should also consider changes to how votes are cast and counted. Ranked choice voting and proportional representation allow for a better reflection of voter preferences, since voters can indicate their second and third choices as well. Campaign finance reform can reduce the influence of money in determining election outcomes.
Although ranked choice voting is fairly new, about two dozen cities are using it for local elections and some, like Minneapolis, have reported positive results, with 76% of voters in city exit polls saying that they liked using it and want it continued. One city with campaign finance innovation is Seattle, where the city issues $100 “democracy vouchers” to voters for use in campaign contributions and limits the amount and sources of donations.
And Make It Easy!
Despite allegations from some political interests, local elections are quite secure. Efforts at both the national level and in many states to “improve election integrity” are discouraging turnout and making it harder to vote. In Harris County, Texas, there were 24-hour early voting sites and drive-through voting options until the state banned them.
Facilitating registration and voting and encouraging turnout improves our democracy. This is particularly important for local elections, in which turnout is typically in the 20-25% range. Steps like Harris County’s, mail ballots, and better voter education about local races could improve these numbers.
