(This week’s civic education and engagement column from Danville’s The Republican newspaper.)
People like me who pay close attention to local government eagerly await the filing deadline. That’s the date by which people who want to run for most local government offices have to submit a petition signed by at least a specified number of registered voters. This year, the deadline was noon on Friday, February 6.
Filing Day is when we get a preview of the annoying yard signs we’ll see in April and October. Assuming you’re a regular voter (and if not and you claim citizens have no impact, you’re part of the problem), you’ll choose from among the folks who filed in the May 5 primary. You’ll vote for our Congressman (the Indiana 4th has never elected a Congresswoman and no females are candidates for the seat this time around), but none of the other “big” offices like President, U.S. Senator, or Governor.
This election will mostly be about the people who keep our county and your community running. The ones who handle things like roads and sewers and jails and parks and stuff like that. You know, those greedy idiots who want far too much of your money. (Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a say in who those people are? Wait – you do!)
Mom was among many people confused by Indiana’s primary system. She was a smart woman, but she never understood why she had to vote twice. “Didn’t I vote for that person already?” What she didn’t grasp was that both major parties use primaries to determine who will run on their behalf in the general election in November. All the people who have an interest in running for a particular position – and who can convince the required number of their fellow taxpayers to sign their petition – will appear on the primary ballot. If there’s only one candidate for their particular ballot spot, they earn it automatically. Otherwise, whoever gets the most votes in the primary goes on the November ballot.
By the way, the good folks who oversee elections in Hendricks County do check to make sure every signature on those petitions comes from a registered voter. It’s why I always counsel first-time candidates to get more signatures on their petition than needed, so when their brother-in-law gets ruled out because he never demonstrated enough initiative to register, they’ll still have enough.
A lot of folks around us complain about the low quantity and poor quality of candidates in our local elections. As far as the quality, as a longtime elected official, I can tell you that most are better than you think. Sure, there are idiots, but tell me about a job you’ve worked where you didn’t have to deal with idiots. (And no, I won’t name the ones I consider idiots.)
It’s absolutely true that there aren’t enough candidates. Every race on every ballot should have multiple candidates. The people who represent us in local government should have to earn the right to do so, and voters deserve a real choice for every role.
That’s how it would be if more of us paid attention. That’s how it would be if more of your neighbors ignored the nonsense on social media and started showing serious interest in what really happens in your local government. That’s how it would be if residents made an effort to personally get to know the people serving in their county, town, school, or township government. When you know your town council member, you don’t have to post on a chatter site demanding action on something that has you bothered. You can reach out to that council member and tell them what you think and why it’s important to you. Whining on social media almost never accomplishes anything.
We have good local government, but the only way it’s going to get better is if you – the voter – demands it. It gets better only if you take the time to develop a basic understanding of local government. You don’t need to memorize the zoning ordinances, but you can learn who’s responsible for creating and enforcing them, so you can understand why the town won’t let your neighbor build a nuclear reactor or drill for oil in their backyard. But as long as people take a passive approach to local government built upon wild social media claims instead of legitimate facts, there’s no reason for it to get better.
(On the Wednesday after the filing deadline, someone popped up in one of the local chatter groups criticizing a local leader’s length of service and urging the community to demand new leadership. Of the dozens of commenters who chose to add their thoughts and the one who presented himself as a potential candidate, I saw only one who was aware the deadline had passed. And because that individual posted a verifiable fact instead of angry hysteria, they were ignored. As usual.)