An Alarming Trend
This Tuesday, for the first time, candidates for San Diego City Council will be running for office under a “district only” format, meaning that candidates will be elected exclusively by voters living within a candidate’s home council district.
Before this year, council candidates ran within the district in the September primary, with the top two vote-getters entering a citywide runoff election in November. But no more. Voter approval of Proposition E last November mandates that council members be elected solely by the district they seek to represent.
Because this year’s council elections are the first to be held under the new district-only format, we’re not really sure what to expect. We do know that voter turnout in the past primary elections for these four council seats--Districts 1, 3, 5 and 7--has shown a steady decline since the mid 1970s.
In fact, the last time these four seats were up for election, in 1985, voter turnout in the primary set an all-time low, at 16%. The election before that, in 1981, was only slightly better, with a turnout of 22.5%. This decline parallels voter turnout trends in California and the United States.
This gradual, but unrelenting, erosion in public participation is cause for alarm. Passive acceptance of a system perceived to be working can be the beginning of the end of the historical reasons it was founded: freedom to exercise our vote, to preserve our liberties, rights and privileges.
CHARLES G. ABDELNOUR
San Diego City Clerk
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