The time commitment is substantial. The pay is insignificant.
The job can be frustrating. And, yes, there are rewards that come
with working to make your community a better place as a local
elected official. But what are we thinking?
The time commitment is substantial. The pay is insignificant. The job can be frustrating. And, yes, there are rewards that come with working to make your community a better place as a local elected official. But what are we thinking?
Faced with dismal voter turnout numbers and local elections that sometimes have too few candidates, what does the government do? It triples and quadruples the fees charged for printing a 200-word ballot statement.
Today is the last day to file as a Gavilan College trustee and Morgan Hill mayor; filing deadlines for school board and city council have been extended to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 11, because incumbents have chosen not to run. Except for City Hall positions – mayor, council, city clerk and city treasurer – whose ballot statement fees the taxpayers will pay, high fees in other positions may be keeping some potentially good candidates out.
It’s absurd. Santa Clara County says the cost hikes – up to $1,412 for a city council candidate, $1,920 for a Morgan Hill School Board race and $2,580 for a someone running for Gavilan trustee – are merely being passed on because federal law requires ballot statements to be printed in multiple languages, forcing the printing costs higher.
There are always expenses that come with running a campaign – letters, advertising, signs, shoe leather and such – but the extra fees could put a run out of some people’s range.
The difference, the Registrar claims, largely depends on how many ballots must be printed for a particular seat. There are far more people in the Gavilan College and Morgan Hill School districts than there are in the City of Morgan Hill.
When does common sense intervene? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that these astronomical fee hikes are counter productive. If the ballot needs to be translated into Chinese, for example, fine. Have that translation available on the Web, at the public library and at polling places. But don’t sacrifice fostering participation in the process for the few voters who don’t understand English.
There are better ways to accommodate those who need additional assistance than to charge people who want to run for local office a hefty fee that very well could preclude them from penning a statement for the ballot.
While the Morgan Hill City Council voted to have the city treasury – and taxpayers – shoulder the candidates’ fees, at a total cost of $53,062 for five open seats and 10 candidates, school district and Gavilan candidates will have to pay the fees themselves. Faced the choice of cutting the budget or having candidates pay the fee, the choice was a no-brainer.
And what if a sincere candidate can’t afford or chooses not to pay the outrageous fee? Will voters take that lack of a ballot statement as a sign of indifference or arrogance?
We’d encourage the Santa Clara County Registrar to file suit against the feds for such a ridiculous – and, just as importantly, unfunded – mandate. Citizens who are interested in voting must take a personal responsibility upon themselves to do so. It’s not the government’s responsibility to make it easy for everyone, but it is the government’s responsibility to ensure that everyone eligible has the opportunity to vote.
Effective leadership is invaluable to our community – though the government doesn’t seem interested in encouraging more of that with its mandated rate increases.
www.sccvote.org
