Plan to Let Voters Pick Ballot Date Is Rejected
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A proposal to allow voters to decide when they want to go to the polls was rejected by a divided City Council this week.
Councilmen Jim Potts and Mike Doyle, frustrated by four changes to the city’s municipal election dates in the last decade, proposed that voters decide--once and for all--when they would like to vote.
“We’re the only city I know of that keeps changing [the dates] on a whim,” Doyle said. “I think a lot of people are confused.”
The council majority said voting decisions should stay in the hands of city leaders.
“There’s some things that future councils should have flexibility on,” said Councilwoman Tracy Wills Worley, who joined Mayor Jeffery M. Thomas and Councilman Thomas R. Saltarelli in the 3-2 decision. “If [the voters] set a permanent date and the general election was changed again, then we would have to have another vote if we wanted to consolidate.”
For now, the next municipal election will be in November 1998. In past years, local elections moved from April to March, back again, and then to November.
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