The 2015 election resulted in Democrats making small gains in Virginia, Indiana, and New York, while Republicans won big in Kentucky. Part of the Democrat’s winning strategy in off-year elections is their ability to suppress the vote.
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Five Thirty Eight reported that even though Republicans are vilified for suppressing the vote by supporting ID laws and opposing early voting, Democrats have their own form of voter suppression in off-year elections.
Popular opinion says Democrats gain seats when more people vote, while Republicans gain when more informed voters vote. That is not the case for small local elections when union members are likely to vote and average, even well-informed voters, don’t vote. Democrats make substantial gains in off-cycle elections and they’re doing everything they can to keep it that way.
Democrats push for certain elections — like school board, state offices, state propositions, and district commissioners on various dates throughout the year.
Only six states hold local elections that coincide with national elections.
While coinciding elections is a very popular opinion, especially among Democrats, it has rarely become law. From 2001 to 2011, state legislatures proposed more than 200 bills to push for coinciding elections but, only 25 became law.
For instance, a 2011 bill in Michigan to move school board elections to even numbered years was passed in a party line vote with almost all Republicans supporting it and almost all Democrats opposing it.
Of the 102 bills proposed from 2001 to 2011 that aimed at consolidating school board elections, 72 were sponsored exclusively by Republicans while just 23 were sponsored by Democrats.
As Five Thirty Eight’s graph shows, Republicans were much more supportive of having school board elections coincide with other elections in all states but one — New Jersey.
On consolidating other elections together, the split between Democrats and Republicans was even more lopsided.
Political scientist Sarah Aniza, a professor at the University of California at Berkley, said that that off-cycle elections lead to higher salaries and better health and retirement benefits for teachers and public employees. Comparing eight different states with similar partisan leanings, demographics, and urbanization, Aniza found that the maximum base teacher’s salary is four percent higher in states that hold their own election dates off-cycle.
Democrats may constantly say they’re fighting for expanding voting rights but when it comes to local elections, they want as few people voting as possible.
