Anchorage Assembly member Chris Birch wants to move the date of municipal elections to coincide with statewide elections in November. Since municipal elections were moved from the fall to the spring of each year, Anchorage voters have decided local matters in April. But they haven't been very good about showing up in big numbers.
Intertwined in the debate over Birch's proposal is one undisputed number, and as with many numbers and measurements of Alaska's largest city, it is not a pretty one. Since 1993, when municipal elections were moved to April, on average, only 28 percent of registered Anchorage voters have bothered to show up at the polls.
The numbers are slightly higher for years when the ballot included a mayoral race and lower for years when there was none. Before 1993, when municipal elections were held in the month of October, an average of 36 percent of voters cast a ballot.
To encourage greater turnout on local issues, Birch wants to move municipal elections to coincide with statewide elections -- which get about double the voter participation, averaging a 59 percent turnout since 1993. During the last municipal election, in April 2013, only one in five registered voters turned out. Birch's idea is facing opposition on the Assembly, as well as from members of the Anchorage Ethics Board. But Birch said he still is hoping to convince five of his colleagues to vote for the election date change.
"We had an abysmal (voter) turnout last year," Birch said at a joint Monday work session meeting of the Anchorage Assembly and its Elections and Ethics boards. "We had a 20 percent turnout last year, and nobody in this room should be proud of that."
Assembly Chair Ernie Hall said that after a conversation with state elections officials, he doesn't think changing the date of the election would be an easy process, and it certainly wouldn't save the municipality any money.
Logistics would be a factor, too. Although both ballots could be presented to city voters at one location -- the state and city share polling places -- the city would have to provide its own ballots and poll workers. And because Anchorage elections can feature as many as 43 different ballots per election cycle because of a mix of fire, park and road service areas that crisscross the Hillside and Chugiak/Eagle River, the city wouldn't be allowed to use the same ballot counting machines until after the state is done with them -- meaning counting for city ballots might not begin until days after a statewide election ended.
"At the end of the day, the state is responsible for its elections, and we are responsible for ours," Hall said.
The municipal clerk's office said it is currently looking at what it would cost to buy its own ballot counting machines. But the cost of each machine would be several thousand dollars, and the city would need 135 of them.
Birch's proposal has also run afoul of an advisory opinion from the Anchorage Board of Ethics. In December, it ruled that the move would violate city ethics rules because, if passed, the ordinance would extend the terms of current Assembly members by seven months. The ethics board also ruled that the election date change would give Assembly members seven additional months of pay -- about $14,500. The board suggested members change the ordinance to go into effect after all of the current members' terms expire.
Members of the Board of Ethics reiterated that suggestion on Monday.
"We gave you an out on that," said Ethics Board Chair Keith Silver. "Wait until the next term (to make it effective)."
Birch said he wants to make the change now. He submitted another ordinance on Friday that would align city ethics rules with those of the state -- allowing members to write laws about and vote on issues in which they may have an interest. That could help avoid the ethics conflict that currently exists if members vote to extend their own terms, according to Birch. But the Board of Ethics said Monday it hasn't had enough time to fully vet the proposed ethics change.
But Assembly member Dick Traini was quick to pass judgment on Birch's ethics change.
"I don't think the state ethics code is correct, because that allows people to vote on ACES (the former state oil tax system) when they are working for an oil company -- no problem," Traini said.
Traini and Assembly member Elvi Gray-Jackson want voters to decide if the election date should change. But time is running out for all of the options. Any item that requires a vote of the public must be passed at least 63 days before it is put on the ballot. That date this year will be the Jan. 28 Assembly meeting.
Contact Sean Doogan at sean(at)alaskadispatch.com.
Correction: An earlier version of this story reported that the city would need more than 200 ballot counting machines. The corect number is 135, and the story has been changed to reflect the accurate number.