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TESTIMONY
Testimony by Daniel Schnur, former Chair of the California Fair Political Practices Commission, on Los Angeles's shift to even-year elections
1:46:06
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6 min
Daniel Schnur, former Chair of the California Fair Political Practices Commission, testifies on Los Angeles's experience moving local elections to even-numbered years.
He explains that the 2015 initiative aimed to increase turnout and reduce voter fatigue/confusion from frequent elections. Schnur reports that turnout in presidential years for local LA races became roughly 400% more than in previous odd-year local elections, with about 33% of Angelenos voting in local races (more than double the previous 10-20%), and 80-90% of those who turned out completed the ballot for local offices. He also notes significant cost savings for the city and reinforces observations about the increasing number of unaffiliated younger voters, attributing it to a cultural shift towards more options rather than a purely political decision.
- Los Angeles moved its local elections to even-numbered years via a 2015 ballot initiative to increase voter turnout.
- Turnout for local offices more than doubled, with 80-90% of those voting in state/national races also completing their local ballots.
- The city saved tens of millions of dollars by consolidating elections.
- Schnur notes a significant increase in unaffiliated younger voters, attributing it to a cultural preference for more choices.
Daniel Schnur
1:46:06
Thanks for thank you very much for having me.
1:46:08
Was very flattered to be asked to join you today.
1:46:10
My name is Dan Schner.
1:46:12
I am the former chair of the California Fair Political Practices Commission, which is our version of the FEC, the campaign watchdog for the state.
1:46:23
I also serve as the co chair, for the Reform California organization, whose work led to the redistricting reform that we implemented many years ago, taking the process away from elected officials and giving it to instead to a citizens commission.
1:46:39
I currently teach politics communications and leadership at the University of Southern California, University of California Berkeley, and Pepperdine University's Graduate School of Public Policy.
1:46:50
And I will regret to say that my testimony will not be nearly as exciting as the exchange over either of our city's housing crises.
1:46:59
But instead, I will focus on the more mundane issue of moving elections to odd numbered years, given the experience we've had here in the city of Los Angeles.
1:47:10
You've obviously already heard a significant amount of testimony on this.
1:47:15
Reminds me of the famous quote from the late Arizona congressman Morris Udall, who once said at the end of a lengthy committee hearing.
1:47:23
He said everything that needs to be said has been said, but not everyone has yet said it.
1:47:29
So please indulge me for a minute or two before, you go on with the rest of your program.
1:47:35
In 2015, Los Angeles voters passed a ballot initiative, amendment one, which would move our local elections for citywide offices, for mayor, for city attorney, and for city controller as well as city council and school board races from odd number to even number of years.
1:47:55
And the debate surrounding that initiative was a familiar one.
1:47:59
The attraction, of course, was the idea that there would be more turnout when there was a statewide or national race at the top of the ticket versus the concern that there would be ballot drop off that given such an extended ballot that a number of citizens would simply just not complete the ballot, and would not address the local offices.
1:48:19
I supported amendment one.
1:48:20
I was a cochair of the campaign and a signature of the ballot initiative because I believe that while both are significant challenges, the biggest challenge is simply getting people to vote at all.
1:48:30
And while ballot drop off and ballot fatigue is a valid concern, it was less worrisome to me than get us getting citizens into the voting booth to begin with.
1:48:42
The biggest challenge here, given the nature of our primary schedule, was not just, ballot drop off, but voter fatigue.
1:48:51
The primary for local Los Angeles elections took place only a few months after a presidential election and within several weeks after a presidential inauguration.
1:49:03
And so what we saw was not just voter fatigue with voter confusion.
1:49:07
Large numbers of the electorate, particularly voters from emerging communities, thinking to themselves, oh, wait a minute.
1:49:14
Didn't I just vote in an election?
1:49:17
Why are they asking me to to do this again?
1:49:20
So another incentive, of course, was eliminating that confusion.
1:49:25
The result the initiative passed by a sizable margin and was implemented for the twenty twenty election.
1:49:32
The results were as follows.
1:49:34
Common cause study showed that turnout in presidential years was roughly 400% more than it had been in local elections.
1:49:44
But I think what's much more relevant to this body are the questions of drop off.
1:49:49
So let me give you a little bit of information what we found there.
1:49:53
What we saw when we just looked at the vote totals for local office, whether for mayor or for city council or school board or even for judges, we saw that roughly 33% of Angelenos voted in those local elections, which I will admit sounds pretty dismal until you consider that in the odd numbered elections, between 1020%, usually roughly about 15% of eligible Angelenos voted.
1:50:24
So the number of those local residents who voted in those city elections more than doubled by moving two even number years on a ballot to presidential or governor's race.
1:50:38
To break that down even further, we found that of those who turned out for a gubernatorial or a presidential campaign, depending on the year between 8090% of them finished the ballot, not just state legislative races, not just city council and school board races, but an infinite number of judicial races that were particularly low information elections.
1:51:03
So 80 to 90% is not perfect, but frankly, it's a much better outcome than we had hoped when we originally advocated, for amendment one.
1:51:14
And the one other relevant result, which one of your testifiers mentioned earlier, is, of course, the financial cost of the city of Los Angeles.
1:51:24
We cut the cost roughly in half because, of course, elections were now being held every two years rather than rather than every year, saving tens of millions of dollars for the city budget.
1:51:37
I'd be more than happy to weigh in as well if you'd like on the top two primary because we've had the top two or the so called jungle primary here in California for over a decade, and I'd be more than happy to share our research on that.
1:51:51
And I'd also briefly reinforce, John Kaney's testimony, which I was very impressed when he talked about the increase of nonaffiliated voters in the younger generation.
1:52:04
We found the same thing here in California among voters, young people of all races and ethnicity.
1:52:10
And my own conclusion for what it's worth is it's not really a political decision on most of their parts, but rather a cultural and societal one.
1:52:20
My generation, us old people, I grew up in a I grew up in an era in which there were three television networks, five buttons on the car radio, and two political parties.
1:52:31
We were accustomed to a finite number of choices in almost every aspect of our lives.
1:52:38
Yes.
1:52:38
Millennials and generation z, of course, have never known a world in which they did not have an infinite number of options for information, for opinion, and entertainment.
1:52:48
So the fact that they are rejecting an artificial binary set of choices should not be surprising to us.
1:52:54
And if we have time, we will.
1:52:56
I'd be eager to hear John's thoughts on that also.