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Q&A
Discussion on voter inclusivity and attention to local issues in even-year elections
0:37:58
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163 sec
Chair Richard Buery questions Bella Wang of the League of Women Voters about research supporting claims that even-year elections increase inclusivity, particularly for renters, and addresses concerns that local issues might receive less attention.
Wang explains that increased turnout in even years inherently leads to a more representative electorate and that media coverage for local races like City Council is already minimal, suggesting the overall boost in voter engagement outweighs the risk of overshadowing local issues.
Richard Buery
0:37:58
Miss Wong, I have a question.
0:37:59
You mentioned research showing that even your election would lead to a more inclusive electorate, including giving greater voice to renters.
0:38:07
Can you just speak more to that, Evelyn?
Bella Wang
0:38:09
Yeah.
0:38:10
So I think overall, right, we know that it's we talk about lower turnout.
0:38:16
Right?
0:38:16
But lower turnout is not spread equally across the population.
0:38:20
We know in general more privileged populations, white, older, homeowners, that kind of thing, are simply more likely to vote in all of these elections.
0:38:32
You know, we were looking at the history of of why elections are currently on odd years, the thought was, well, if we split them up, we'll make sure that people are get every issue with its chance to time to shine.
0:38:43
We'll be able to have more time and focus on these issues.
0:38:46
But what we've actually been finding is that the media market is disintegrating for our eyes, that it's very hard to get local news, and that younger and less privileged voters are simply less likely to be learning in the first place about these issues.
0:39:00
So, basically, anytime you have turnout go up, you're more likely to have a representative electorate, and that has a lot of downstream impacts, we think, on everything from how we handle the budget to the education, all the kind of other issues.
Richard Buery
0:39:13
And you spoke to this, I think, just, instantly in your answer, but, we've heard some testimony or some concerns that with even your election that might lead to less attention to local election, local issues because it'll be dominated by the statewide or national election.
0:39:28
Can you speak a little bit more about your perspective on that objection?
Bella Wang
0:39:31
Sure.
0:39:31
So it's interesting.
0:39:32
Right?
0:39:32
Because I think Citizens Union will say, you know, that was why they supported the switch back in the old progressive era days.
0:39:38
Right?
0:39:39
And it just didn't pan out.
0:39:41
You know, we did when we did our study, we did a little bit of a review of, you know, the New York Times and other kind of major local newspapers.
0:39:48
How much coverage did they have of city council races, comparing that to coverage of, for example, assembly races, which also tend to be somewhat lower profile, and sort of during the evening or equivalent.
0:39:59
And it was kind of the same.
0:40:00
Right?
0:40:01
All the the attention went to the mayoral, ended up much, much larger, or portion went to presidential federal elections.
0:40:10
But when we think about city council elections, assembly elections, that's something where we believe that the the the attention on the election in the first place, the boost from that level of natural intention increase, frankly, probably just outweighs the the loss of of attention to city council race because, frankly, neither assembly races nor city council races were getting covered in the first place, which is a shame, but I think a little bit out of scope with this particular ballot question.
Richard Buery
0:40:40
Thank you so much.