Lets face it.  Like the craziest flying machines ever developed, the Gainesville City Commission elections are built to fail.  The current commission knows it and they like it that way.

 

Are they a failure because the wrong person won?  No.  They are a failure because they are designed to turn out no more than between 12% and 16% of the vote.  In a low turnout election, the advantage goes to the folks with the 3 to 1 advantage.  In general, when there are higher turnout elections, Republicans will turn out in larger percentages than Democrats.  The Democrats in Gainesville know this, so they liberal city commission has the election rigged in two extremely devious ways.

 

When were the Gainesville elections in 2011?  You don't remember, do you?  How about 2010?  Hmmm.  Can't remember that, either?  Well, can you remember 2009?  I didn't think so.  That's because its not set.  The Gainesville City Commission votes, each and every year, to set the election date for the next year. 

 

When will the general elections (President, Senate, House, etc) be in 2012?  First full week of November, you say?  That's right.  When were the general elections in 2010?  First full week of November, you say?  That's right.

 

Most voters can't specifically tell you that the fall general elections are on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, but  they pretty much know its in the first full week of November.  Its been that way since 1845.  Yep, that's right.  By having the election at the same time for 167 years, people generally know when they are supposed to go vote.

 

The optimal solution is to move the Gainesville City Commission elections to the fall, where turnout is higher.  Sure, there will be some voter dropoff down ballot, but the turnout will be higher and we will get a result that more accuratly reflects the will of the people.

 

At a minimum, if the election stays in the spring, the City Commission should set the election date, in ordinance, for the same time every year.  If it was on the second Tuesday of every March, over time voters would begin respond.  Call the Supervisor of Elections and ask her.  She has told us that she recommends that the election day be set.

 

The one, single early voting location in the City of Gainesville is designed to serve one constituency, The Duck Pond neighborhood, the most liberal neighborhood in the City of Gainesville.  Out of nearly 1000 early votes, 90% of them were Democrats.  First, parking downtown is tough.  Second, that location is withing a 5 minute walk or a 2 minute bicycle ride of the Duck Pond.  The western border of Gainesville, though, is 8 miles to the west of that location.  The distance from the Supervisor of Elections to the many of the core neighborhoods of District 2, one of the most conservative districts is about 7 miles through town traffic.

 

The fact is, these elections were built for low turnout, and low turnout helps the entrenched establishment.  Look at each and every City of Gainesville, at-large election in the past 10 years, and most of them fall within a few points of each 55 - 45, and the system is designed to keep it that way.

When 49.1% of Gainesville citizens don't approve of the biomass incinerator and only 36% of voters approve, the only conclusion that can be drawn by election results like this is that the elections are designed to make sure that a large segment of the population don't throw their 2 cents in.

The people sitting on that commission, right now, should be ashamed to look at their constitutents and pretend to have the will of the people at their back, all the while preserving a system designed to suppress turnout.

The only way to fix it is for voters to go down to the city hall and demand the same access to early voting as those in the Duck Pond neighborhood.  The only way to fix it is for voters to demand that the elections be held in such a way as to promote consistency so that people know when to go vote.  One single tweet from the city of Gainesville on election day is just not good enough.