New Bill Would Align School Board Elections with General Elections

House Majority Whip Rep. Valerie J. Longhurst (D-Bear)

Calling this an opportunity to save taxpayer money and increase voter participation, House Majority Whip Rep. Valerie J. Longhurst (D-Bear) introduced legislation Thursday that would align public school board elections with the bi-annual general elections.

House Bill 117 would eliminate the annual school board elections for the 16 school districts that elect board members. School board elections currently are held on the second Tuesday of May and can occur in any year.

Under the introduced legislation, school board elections would move to Election Day beginning in 2010, which Longhurst contends will save the state from having to mobilize poll workers, voting machines and running up to 16 separate elections on the same day, which amounts to a statewide election.

“It’s rare that we as legislators can do something that will both save money and increase voter participation in the public process, but this will definitely increase turnout for school board elections,” Longhurst said.

Currently, less than 2 percent of registered voters in Delaware actually vote in school board elections, which determine things such as local school taxes and education budgets.

“Hopefully with this change, people will become more involved and give the same scrutiny to school board races as they do with all other elections,” Longhurst said.

In 2008, the state spent nearly $120,000 on elections in 11 of the 16 school districts that have school board elections, while only 8,230 of nearly 600,000 registered voters voted.

Longhurst worked on the proposal during the past few months, meeting with officials from Department of Education and Department of Elections to ensure that the legislation is implemented smoothly.

“We’re happy to have come together as a group to pull this bill together,” said Commissioner of Elections Elaine Manlove. “This bill will dramatically increase voter turnout. You hate to throw an election and no one comes to vote.”

Opposition to Consolidated Elections

Not everyone is in favor of lumping the school-board contests onto the general-election ballot.

One issue opponents have raised concerns the boundaries that school districts currently occupy. According to Appoquinimink school board V.P. Joanne Christian, school-district lines don’t necessarily conform to voting district lines.

“What do you do with someone who lives in the 9th, schools in Colonial, but votes in Appoquinimink?” she asked on a thread on the Delaware Liberal blog.

Alan Loudell, the news anchor at local talk-radio station WDEL, also has reservations about the new legislation, mostly centered around the relative obscurity of down-ballot candidates to many voters.

“Do good government folks really want voters blindly pressing ballot buttons for school board candidates,” Loudell asks on his blog. “I can guarantee you… it’ll happen!”

Opponents also content that school-board contests on the general-election ballot would have the practical effect of knocking-out voters not registered to vote.

“To many people, that would not necessarily be a bad thing,” Loudell says.