Local Elections - Why are they important and why should you vote?

One of my pet peeves is that people will turn out in larger numbers for federal, state, and even year elections than they do for their local government elections. County Commissioner elections tend to fall in even-year elections, so they often get a better turnout than municipal and school board elections. Let me ask you a few questions:

Who do you think makes laws that affect you and your family/friends the most quickly?

Who do you think makes laws that affect your quality of life?

Who do you think makes the laws that affect your or your community's children's education?

Let me answer some of these questions for you...

Local elections are critical because the Mayor, City Council/Board of Trustees and School Board Members, Special District board members such as RTD Directors (Regional Transportation District), etc., are the people who decide what to put money and resources into. This can include roads, bridges, recreation, public safety, education, transit, and public transportation among many other local issues. I wonder why people only show up to vote for President, Congress and the state offices? Don't get me wrong, these are important offices, and you should show up to vote for them. But the off-year elections are as, if not more, important to your everyday lives. To put a finer point on this, here are some key votes I made when I was on the school board:

• Goals and policies related to graduation rates
• Adding in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) magnet schools
• Adding a school which allowed for young adults with insufficient high school credits, to make those and graduate, while in a non-traditional setting to allow for students to work, raise children, etc.
• Adding additional resources for Career Technical Education
• Determining funding for deferred maintenance on facilities
• How best to cut $15 million out of the budget during the recession 

Some key votes I made when I was mayor:

• Allocating millions of dollars each year to have an ongoing road maintenance program
• Allocating money from the Thornton Assistance Funds program to nonprofits throughout the city
• Voted against allowing marijuana retail stores in Thornton (it still passed 5 to 4)
• After the vote passed, I worked diligently to ensure that the regulations that passed were fair and ensured the health and safety of our residents.
• Ensured we didn't ask for an overly high sales tax to place on the product so that Thornton would be competitive with our neighboring cities.
• Voted on the annual budget which included:
• Police funding
• Fire Department funding
• Water Department funding
• Funding for new parks and the upkeep of current parks
• Funding to remediate and take over management of the golf course
• Funding for the Trail Winds Recreation Center
• Road maintenance
• Infrastructure Development
• Utilities
• Waste services
• Voted on new developments and zoning for multi-family, single-family, and commercial projects
• Hired the City Manager, City Attorney and the Municipal Judge - all of who carry out the policies of the Mayor and City Council

The list goes on and on. If you want to have a say about what's going on in your municipality, county, and state, make sure to get out the vote at EVERY election - not just the presidential or even year elections.

 

Are you still unsure why you should vote, or if your vote matters? I once saw an election for city council seat in Northglenn come down to a tie. They flipped a coin to determine who would win the seat. In Thornton, we had multiple elections that came down to a few votes - votes that the candidate had to chase down. (they check with people whose ballots weren't verified to get signatures, etc.). If you don't think your vote counts, it definitely does. Every election is important - you never know the ramifications of sitting out an election, until you start seeing things going a different way than you would prefer. I really don't care if you vote the way I do, I just want you to vote!!!!!