Election dates

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* Planks about election dates from Mark Rauterkus
== Special elections cost money. ==
A special eleciton costs the county or state money could be better spent in other ways. A special election for a PA Senate seat costs about $200,000 to conduct. A special election for a Pittsburgh City Council seat costs about $40,000 to conduct.
== Special elections cost time. ==
The hours of lost productivity to conduct a special election is significant. A special election takes a lot of hours from citizens, poll workers and volunteers. Once those hours are spent, they can't come back. Our people, neighbors, friends and employees need to be productive and prosperous. Sitting around a polling place is no way to lead a more productive, prosperous life. There are better ways to spend our time and build relationships.
== Time to evaluate and debate. ==
An early election gives the voters fewer opportunities to get to know the candidates. The citizens could be better prepared to vote:
:* after forums can be scheduled and held, 
:* after articles can be published, read, and 
:* after issues can be raised, understood, debated and given wider awareness.
An early election gives less opportunity for citizen candidates. It takes time to mount a campaign. Without time, leading candidates are often office workers from the past representative's office. 
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When elections and campaigns are ill or crooked, the outcomes are sure to be the same. 
When elections are rushed forward at early dates, the benefits reside with those in power and the challengers suffer. With better challengers, we'd get better campaigns. When we get better candidates, we'll have better choices at the polls. When we have good choices at the polls, we'll have better represenatives and elected officials. 
We need better accountability in the system. Accountability takes time. 
 
Conventional wisdom holds that Republicans show up to the polls to vote no matter what. Democrats don't vote in larger numbers on special election dates and in off elections. Therefore, party officials from the Democrats often favor special elections being on the same date as primary elections or general elections, not on stand-alone election days. Furthermore, on tight elections, the GOP party officials often dislike hot referendum questions on the ballot at the same date. For example, when Jim Roddey was running for a second term for Allegheny County Executive, the state and county GOP officials hated the prospect of a city referendum question that called for the elimination of some city council seats. The belief was that election would be more important and more Democrats would turn out to the polls, giving more votes to Roddey's opponent.
category: democracy