Charter Change Would Dramatically Increase Student Votes in Council Elections. Is that Good or Bad?
A proposed amendment to East Lansing’s City Charter brought forward by Mayor Ron Bacon would dramatically increase the number of Michigan State University students voting in the City Council elections.
While students now make up about 4-7% of those voting in Council elections, if the charter amendment passes, students could cast 45-50% of the votes for Council some years. That could also change how campaigns are run.
Bacon’s proposed Charter amendment – one of three he’s just put forth – would, if approved by voters, change the years of Council elections from odd-numbered years to even-numbered years.
Currently, voters who participate in the Council elections are typically specifically motivated to do so, because there are no statewide or national races on odd-year ballots. That means voters casting ballots for Council also tend to be relatively informed about that race. Changing to even-numbered years would mean the participation of many voters who have come to the ballot box for bigger races.
Council will take up discussion of the three proposed amendments tomorrow (Tuesday, June 13), specifically to consider whether to put them to voters in the November 2023 election. Council could vote tomorrow to kill the proposals or move them to the ballot.
In advance of the discussion, two long-time politicians in East Lansing are saying changing Council elections to even-numbered years is a bad idea, while Ingham County’s Clerk and one former Council candidate strongly support the proposed charter amendment.
People in favor say the charter amendment should be supported because it would increase the number of voters and lower costs.
Writing to City Council back in February, Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum urged the Council to consider the change.
“This will increase voter participation while decreasing voter confusion,” Byrum wrote. (She did not explain what about the odd-numbered year elections is confusing voters.)
She also noted that having Council elections fall in line with state and federal elections would allow for more days of in-person voting. That’s because of new statewide provisions requiring a nine-day period of early, in-person voting for state and federal elections.
“You will be able to take advantage of this [early in-person voting period] while not having to reimburse the County for the election, as it would no longer be a special election,” Byrum wrote.
To date, proponents of the change have not said how much money would be saved by moving Council elections to even-numbered years.
Adam DeLay, current chair of East Lansing’s Parks & Recreation Advisory Committee, has come out on social media strongly in favor of changing Council election years.
DeLay, who came in last place in the 2021 Council race for two four-year seats, wrote on Twitter this past weekend, “Putting council races with presidential and gubernatorial elections will dramatically increase the number of people voting in council races, especially among students. It will also save the city money. It’s a win-win.”
“The EL odd year electorate is far older and whiter than the city’s population, and much of its politics over the years reflect that,” he added in a subsequent tweet. “This will allow better representation.”
But people against the charter amendment say the change would mean far more ill-informed voters and less accountability for Council.
Writing at his Facebook page yesterday, former mayor and current Council candidate Mark Meadows said, “Today, our elections are the only game in town and not subsumed by Presidential, Gubernatorial, Congressional, State House and Senate etc., etc., elections all being held at the same time. As a result, the Council has more accountability to the voters who pay attention to Council actions.”
Meadows served on the Council from 1995 to 2006 and again from 2015 through July 2020, when he resigned his seat. Besides serving for several years as East Lansing’s mayor, he also served in the Michigan House of Representatives. He is now running for one of the three open Council seats in November alongside Council appointee Noel Garcia and Dan Bollman. (The seats of Garcia, Bacon and Mayor Pro Tem Jessy Gregg are up, and Bacon and Gregg have not yet said if they are planning to run again.)
Ingham County Commissioner Mark Grebner (representing a large part of East Lansing), an attorney and political consultant, has been watching East Lansing Council elections for 50 years. He said in a written statement, shared today with ELi, the data shows clearly just how radically this Charter amendment could alter East Lansing’s political scene.
Grebner called it a “major mistake.”
“Particularly in presidential years, the proposed charter amendment would guarantee that many people voting for city council would have very little knowledge or interest in city affairs,” Grebner wrote, “and would only be voting in the council race because it happened to share the ballot with higher visibility offices.”
According to Grebner, in a typical Council election – which now occurs in odd-numbered years – about four to five thousand people cast ballots. It’s been going up as voting has become easier.
“Under the system now in place,” Grebner explained, “the people who actually cast ballots in city elections are self-selected by their interest in the issues which appear on the odd-year ballots, which is to say the city council races plus various local tax questions.”
While about 25,000 MSU students could in theory vote in Council elections, “most simply don’t find any reason to devote their attention to the election. The 200 to 500 students who typically vote represent only 1% or 2% of those eligible.”
But, “If the city elections are moved to even year Novembers, the situation will change radically, and large numbers of MSU students will find themselves voting in the city council races. They will be no more interested or informed than they are today, but they will find themselves holding a ballot which presents a choice of council candidates, and they will do the best they can to make good choices. But they will have very little information to work with.”
Grebner’s data show that, presently, roughly 125-450 students will participate in a Council election, coming to 4-7% of the vote.
But during presidential elections, students represent about 30-45% of those voting in East Lansing. He said he would not be surprised if in the 2024 election, students cast 45-50% of all votes recorded in East Lansing, because of changes in election law and high interest among youth in the next presidential election.
“These students are intelligent and politically engaged adults,” Grebner said, “and I believe there is no reason they shouldn’t vote if they want to….But it’s one thing to encourage involvement, and quite another to impose involvement on unwilling people.”
In his statement, Grebner anticipated the argument that the solution would be to educate student voters about the city, its politics and the candidates.
“‘Educating’ such voters about city council candidates and issues is a forlorn hope,” Grebner said, “because there will be so little time and so noisy a media environment,” particularly in even-numbered election years with big-ticket races.
Grebner said the charter change would mean campaigning on stereotypes, not issues, to win.
“To be blunt, if I were professionally advising candidates how to maximize their vote totals on campus, I would tell them to abandon anything beyond ‘politically correct’ stereotypes, only trying to stand out from the crowd,” he said. ”The best strategy would probably be to run stridently against Donald Trump and the Republicans, hoping to transform a few seconds of contact with each would-be voter into a mental residue sufficient to affect the uninformed choice that will later be made.”
“The most efficient way to convert limited resources to votes,” Grebner explained, “will be to spend them on flashy, low-information campaigning on campus.”
In his Facebook post, Meadows expressed skepticism about Bacon’s motivation for the proposed charter changes.
“The Charter changes seem a little like a diversionary tactic to move attention from the chaos at City Hall,” Meadows wrote. “The size of Council, the date of swearing in, the year of the election or even the need for better compensation are not the reason or reasons that directors, assistant directors, interim directors, assistants and secretaries have fled EL employment. Working conditions must play a part. Something is wrong and Council should concentrate on finding out what that wrong is.”
Meadows added in his Facebook post, “If the Council is convinced that Charter changes are necessary, it should establish a Charter Review Committee, like we did in 1996. I am certain that the Charter could use a fresh look now.”
He noted that the Charter Review Committee had been chaired by now-Councilmember George Brookover. (Grebner was also part of that effort.)
Council’s meeting tomorrow begins at 7 p.m. at the Hannah Community Center and there is a period set aside for public comment at the beginning. Find the agenda here. Written comments can also be submitted to Council at council@cityofeastlansing.com.