Q: Why is voting important? To Read the Full Story. Subscribe Sign In. Continue reading your article with a WSJ membership. Resume Subscription We are delighted that you'd like to resume your subscription. Please click confirm to resume now. Fair and transparent board election processes promote the general welfare of your organization as well as a positive public image to members and non-members alike.
Your Members Elections are an opportunity to engage members of the organization. Leaders, and potential members, of your board use elections to demonstrate their skills and management capabilities. Your Leadership Growing the organization socially and economically requires finding good leadership through holding competitive elections.
Board member elections with high voter turnout prevent a monopoly of authority, while also gaining members trust in the governance of the organization. Good governance means leadership being held accountable by voters. Contact Us.
Get the Latest News Stay up to date with product news, deals, and helpful insights. By supplying your contact information, you authorize SBS to contact you with further information and can unsubscribe anytime. In fact, in Chicago, low mayoral turnout was attributed to voters who felt that they had been left behind by their local leaders.
People should pay more attention to local elections and take the time to learn about the stances of local candidates and propositions. One particularly key issue that city elections can determine is the funding and maintenance of critical infrastructure. A report on infrastructure conducted by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli identifies roads, bridges, and water and sewer systems as infrastructure areas that local officials can improve.
For citizens wishing to express their grievances with outdated infrastructure, the federal election may not be the correct outlet to do so. The main barriers to infrastructure updates that were outlined by DiNapoli were a lack of money and the infrequent rate at which infrastructure gets updated.
The report concludes that these issues are not insurmountable, but, rather, can be resolved through strategic budget planning and a willingness to update infrastructure.
Electing candidates who embrace these two strategies can result in a significant improvement in the quality of life of those in a given local community.
Local government officials can vastly improve living conditions via infrastructure updates. For example, In New Jersey, local officials issued a lawsuit against companies that contaminated drinking water. The maintenance of water system infrastructure could be the difference between residents having clean drinking water and those same residents facing a whole host of health issues from unsanitary tap water.
For example, Flint, Michigan has lacked clean drinking water and increased attention towards local politics could be the beginning of ameliorating that situation. Local government officials in Flint have exacerbated this issue due to their refusal to renovate pipes that have contaminated the water sources.
Therefore, any solution must involve innovation from local government officials since they have jurisdiction over the drinking water, and the potential for increased attention on local elections could spur candidates to propose new solutions.
The stakes of local elections might not be as widely reflected in the media as they are about the Presidential Election, but local elections have real consequences.
Apathy and low turnout should not continue to define local elections. Although the media and general civics education play a large role in fueling this lack of democratic participation, the causes are not as important as the steps that individuals can take to have their voice heard.
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