Why don't voters show up for local elections? Berks experts offer ideas for solutions

May 18—The 2020 election was everywhere.

With a fight over who was going to lead the United States for the next four years, it dominated news coverage for months. It was inescapable, a story that seemed to have endless angles and nonstop developments.

And people seemed genuinely interested.

A record number of people nationwide turned out to vote in November. In Berks County the turnout was so high that it took days to count all the newly instituted mailed ballots, a situation mirrored all over the state and country.

Six months later, another election is being held in Pennsylvania. And if history is any indication, it won't look anything like the 2020 edition.

Despite the fact that municipal primary elections like the one taking place Tuesday — in which people choose candidates for local contests for things like township supervisors, borough council members, school board directors, county offices, judicial seats — have a much greater impact on people's day-to-day lives, voters tend not to care very much about them.

Low voter turnout in local elections is not a new problem. In Berks, the last three municipal primary elections each failed to draw more than 18% of eligible registered voters to the polls.

There's a chance that the numbers this year will be a little bit better, with the availability to cast ballots by mail and the appearance of four ballot questions allowing all registered voters to take part instead of just those belonging to the two major political parties. But they certainly won't come close to last year's numbers.

"As a country we haven't been doing that great with voter turnout, particularly in years when there is no presidential race," said Wenda Kincaid, president of the League of Women Voters of Berks County. "Typically we see a 20 to 30% drop in participation. And that's just tragic."

What's the problem?

Kincaid said she sees three different mindsets when it comes to people who decide to stay home on Election Day: disenchantment, indifference and contentment.

She said disenchantment is seen when people think their vote will have no impact on the outcome of the election. In municipal elections, she said that's exacerbated because people often do not understand who the candidates are and what roles those offices have.

"In local elections, we often hear from people who are confused as to why they vote for say a township tax collector or the county coroner," she said. "Many of these offices were set up hundreds of years ago and they no longer have the same kind of meaning they once had in the community."

The indifferent person, Kincaid said, has been turned off by the political process. She said the partisan bickering at the state and national level has convinced these people that the entire process has been corrupted in a way that good government no longer matters.

"Part of that is just the amount of emotion that has gotten into elections," she said. "You just see the fighting, you hear the yelling and want to drop out of the entire process."

And then there are the people who are content with the way things are and assume others are going to study the candidates and cast ballots, Kincaid said. This happens when people think they don't know enough about the issues and rely on others to make the choices.

Kevin Boughter, chairman of the Berks County Democratic Committee, said money can help overcome some of these problems. He said the constant barrage of commercials, nationally televised debates and fiery rhetoric can convince even the most apathetic people to pick a candidate.

But money is missing from local elections.

"The statewide and national offices are much more glamorous," he said. "There is a tremendous amount of money spent on introducing candidates to voters whereas voters are unlikely to know who is running for local office."

He said his committee uses social media to highlight candidates running for local office but there are many people who never seek out that information.

Boughter said the ability of some candidates to appear on both Democratic and Republican ballots in certain races like school board director and county judge is also confusing.

"That just creates confusion for the voters," he said. "They feel like if they knew which party the candidates belonged to they would have a better idea of what their philosophy is when it comes to public education or criminal justice."

Clay Breece, Berks County Republican Committee chairman, did not respond to requests for comment.

What's the solution?

Kincaid said voter education is a potential to fix these problems.

She said the message that needs to be communicated to people is how important these offices are to the communities they serve. The issues that these governmental bodies make, the ordinances they create, the budgets they approve and the cases they decide need to be made crystal clear.

"We forget that most of the taxes we pay are local," she said. "So it's hard to get excited about local elections when you don't understand how the decisions they make will impact your life or your pocketbook."

Kincaid said schools no longer teach these things so it has fallen to organizations like the League of Women Voters to fill that void. She said the group does its best to help spread the word by holding candidate forums and hosting discussions on the issues.

And perhaps the most direct way they try to educate is by asking all the candidates why they are running for office and why the position they are seeking is important.

Elections Director Ronald Rutkowski agrees.

"When you look at how much of the conversation revolves around the races at the national level, it can be frustrating to see that the excitement and engagement is just there for contests that probably mean even more to voters at the local level," he said, adding there are about 600 candidates running in local elections this spring throughout the county.

"These are people who want to become part of the solution," he said.

Rutkowski said his team must play a part in educating people about why these positions are so important.

"We need to get the emphasis back on local elections and communicate to voters why they should be paying attention," he said.

He said Silvia Gutierrez, an elections project coordinator, has been tasked with looking at this issue and suggesting ways for the office to do more outreach. He said that may mean having a greater presence at community events or giving presentations to local social organizations.

"We are trying to look at what we can do," he said.

Commissioner Kevin Barnhardt, chairman of the county elections board, said he thinks election leaders can preach to people all they want about how critically important it is for them to be involved in local government, but what can really get them engaged is getting them to realize how they can actually effect change.

"You might possibly run into your state representative or state senator, but you will much more likely to run into your mayor and school board member at the grocery store," he said. "Your message is exponentially bigger to your local school board than your message to your senator."

Barnhardt, who served as a West Reading councilman for 15 years before a nine-year stint as West Reading mayor, said people need to know that those who run for local office are doing it because they truly want to serve their communities. He pointed out that people in most of these positions get little to no compensation for the work they do.

And he said they are unlikely to have the time to get caught up in partisan gridlock.

"Roads need to be paved, school budgets need to be decided, property zoning decisions need to be made," he said.