Awakening River City Voters

Duval County voters turned out in astonishing fashion in the 2008 Presidential race. When all was said and done, roughly 78% of the county’s voters found their ways to the polls to make their voices heard. This sense of civic duty was rather remarkable, particularly considering voter turnout in the 2007 City Elections, which featured a race for Mayor and every single City Council seat, was not even 20%.

In all fairness, 2008 turnout was somewhat of an anomaly. After all, a hotly contested Governor’s race in 2006 only drew 42% of Duval voters, slightly less than the equally febrile 2003 Mayor’s race, which managed to pique the interest of 50% of Jacksonville’s registered voters.

According to the Grand Jury report released in the Sunshine Law Investigation, the Grand Jury found that Duval County residents felt a disconnect from their local government. While many might be quick to point out the obvious—voters who don’t bother to show up at the polls will never have any sense of engagement in the process—what we really need to consider is why Jacksonville voters believe their voice counts in changing the direction of government in Washington, DC, but feel powerless to affect government within their own City?

Turning out voters is not only the responsibility of the Supervisor of Elections. In truth, there are many things that could be done both within and outside of government to improve voter involvement in local government. Here are a few suggestions:

1. For starters, our current elected officials could take steps to ensure openness and access to citizens. In this day of cutting edge technology, it’s rather bewildering that a majority of Jacksonville City Council members do not offer the public access to their incoming e-mail. No members offer access to outgoing e-mail. Town Hall Meetings seem to be few and far between. In fact, in my district, the only time I have heard of my Council member being available at a town hall-style meeting was when there was a public hearing over a zoning request change. There should also be more consideration given to the location and time of Council meetings. Most of the voting public works and finds it difficult to rush downtown for the opportunity to take advantage of the public comment time in a council meeting. (Not to mention the dearth of appropriately lit parking slots available.) I have to wonder what an occasional rotating Council meeting held, say, on a Saturday morning at alternating locations throughout the City (Mandarin, Beaches, etc) would do to increase public interest in City Council deliberations.

2. Our local media also needs to fully embrace their role as public watchdog. The Florida Times-Union did a sensational job in uncovering and investigating several recent major stories, including the Sunshine Law Violations and allegations of corruption at the Jacksonville Port Authority. Many of the local television stations have had similar pockets of success and Folio Weekly has long prided itself on its investigative prowess. Where are these media outlets; however, when local races are on the ballots? Is it too much to ask for our daily paper to commission a poll on the top five issues voters see as crucial in upcoming city elections? Such a poll could then be followed up with a five week series leading up to Election Day exploring these various issues, sharing proposed solutions and highlighting where the various candidates stand. Why couldn’t competing candidates for the Supervisor of Elections post write dueling op-ed pieces that lay out the challenges they see within the office and discuss the direction they would like to take it? Why can’t local television stations catch people walking around the St. Johns Town Center on a Sunday afternoon and ask them to pose a question to candidates running for City Council? Why couldn’t all of the outlets do a better job of expanding their online capabilities? After all, how difficult would it be to reach out to local blogs and forums to draw in educated and lively debate on issues? Why couldn’t candidate debates be posted in online formats, such as YouTube or iTunes, to make them more accessible to the public that might not be able to catch a specific program?

3. Candidates—and the political consultants that advise them—need to embrace modern technology in their campaigns. While campaign websites seem to be (ever so slowly) becoming a staple of political life in Jacksonville, one recent candidate for City Council featured a website that was absolutely appalling in its archaic insignificancy. The site was nothing more than a vapid one-page billboard—-quite startling for a city-wide election in a major population center with nearly 1 million residents. Campaigns are expensive, certainly, but many of the methods of modern media are free. Hopefully, the success of the Obama campaign should have forever established the importance of such outlets as Facebook (free), YouTube (free) and blogs (also free). Local candidates wishing to engage the ever-elusive younger voters should explore these types of mediums to communicate their messages.

4. Local campaign finance reform is long overdue. For years, local fundraising has been dominated by a few industry segments (and individuals) who have opened their coffers and exploited loopholes to bankroll their preferred candidates, often leading to situations where a candidate can haul in thousands of dollars via one individual who also happens to have multiple corporations and partnerships. Several local activists, including former city council candidate Scott Shine, have worked to advance proposals that would ban corporate contributions to Duval County races. This is something the City Council should earnestly consider. Jacksonville is long overdue to return the responsibility for local governance to the voting public that pays the bulk of the property taxes in the City. Campaigns should be about a candidate’s vision for the City, not their ability to monopolize a select few donor sources to effectively overwhelm the competition.

5. Finally, and most importantly, voters need to realize that they alone have the ultimate responsibility to become actively engaged in the process. There are multiple tools available to the public to educate themselves on candidates for office. Google the names of candidates, find their websites, read local forums, blogs and the sample ballot from the Supervisor of Elections. And, for goodness sakes, show up to vote. In today’s world, where the two weeks before Election Day offer early voting, voting is easier than it has ever been.

Jacksonville has many things of which to be proud. Our river and our beaches provide scenic beauty that is only the beginning of the advantages we have over cities throughout the country. It’s certainly time that we add the active engagement of our voting public to that lineup.

Filed under: Jacksonville, Jacksonville City Council , Duval County, Jacksonville, Voter Turnout