Voter turnout in Charlotte’s municipal elections is abysmal. There’s a simple fix. | Opinion

Charlotte, North Carolina’s largest city, held elections this month for mayor and city council. It was a relatively sleepy affair. Just over 120,000 people participated — about 15% of eligible voters in the city.

It’s better, at least, than September’s primary, but that’s not saying much. Less than 5% of Charlotte voters cast a vote in September — which, believe it or not, wasn’t even the lowest turnout in recent history. According to an analysis from WFAE, Charlotte’s primary turnout was dead last among the nation’s 50 largest cities. That’s certainly not a distinction that Charlotte should be proud to have earned.

If democracy is at its best when everyone participates, then we could certainly do a whole lot better. Local government affects so much of our daily lives, from zoning to basic services like trash, transit and water. Yet the people who run our city are elected by only a fraction of the population.

Statewide, just 10.6% of registered voters participated in their local elections last week, compared to 51% in the 2022 midterms. Of course, getting hundreds of thousands of apathetic voters to suddenly start voting in municipal elections is probably a tall order. But there’s an easier solution: changing when and how those elections are held.

Part of the problem with municipal elections is that they occur in odd-numbered years, when there are no statewide or federal races on the ballot to drive turnout. And when there’s a new election cycle literally every year, it’s hard to blame voters for growing weary.

A couple of years ago, the city of Raleigh permanently made the switch to even-year municipal elections. It was a controversial decision at the time, because it happened behind closed doors without public input. But it was probably the right move. According to North Carolina elections guru Gerry Cohen, 75 municipalities have moved from odd to even-year elections in recent years, and it’s had a positive effect on turnout. There’s no reason why Charlotte couldn’t do the same.

Some people fear that if local elections occur in even-numbered years, they’ll be tainted by national politics, or they’ll fall to the bottom of the ballot where nobody will pay much attention to them. But it’s hard to imagine people paying less attention to municipal races than they are now, and besides, local elections already are getting tangled up with national politics. This year’s school board race was marred by accusations about a group of candidates being covert Republicans. In Huntersville, a Republican group circulated flyers that mentioned issues like abortion, gun control and transgender rights, as if that’s relevant to elections for mayor or town council.

To see the difference, just look at 2022, when Charlotte held municipal elections a year later than intended due to census delays. As a result, the municipal primary occurred alongside primaries for state and federal races. While turnout was still low at 14%, that’s better than the sub-5% percent primary turnout this year, and the top vote-getter in the Democratic at-large primary for Charlotte City Council got 25,000 more votes than the top vote-getter in September’s Democratic primary.

It’s not just about how many people vote — it’s also about who those voters are. In local elections, turnout tends to be much higher in the wealthier parts of the city than in low-income neighborhoods, according to WFAE. In even-numbered years, that pattern still exists, but it’s not nearly as pronounced. There are many studies that support this conclusion: elections held in odd-numbered years tend to draw a less diverse electorate.

Turnout also isn’t helped by local elections in Charlotte being partisan. In a heavily Democratic city like Charlotte, many races are effectively decided in the primary — an election in which not everyone can participate. Unaffiliated voters can choose to vote in the Democratic primary, but Republican voters cannot, leaving them to feel like they don’t have much of a say in who runs the city.

Charlotte is unusual in having partisan elections. Most cities in North Carolina — and across the country — do not. A couple of years ago, a citizen advisory committee recommended that Charlotte City Council officially switch to nonpartisan elections. The council has yet to heed that recommendation.

It should. We should want as many people as possible to participate in local elections, because democracy works better when they do.