High turnouts rather than low are signs of crises in our society. Last years presidential campaign had a strong turnout not only because the issues mattered to people, and they did, but because our community itself was clearly split. The stakes were high, and the outcome while close, mattered. I for one am grateful that our city does not face such a climatic internal divisions. As a DFL'er, I take pride that this is due in large part to a "pretty good job" we have done over the past decades. Not flawless, but at least pretty good. While Mpls issue board zealots passionately espouse the obvious need for change, or reform or whatever. The every day citizen somehow doesn't. How can they be so blind? I suspect the city's population is made up of several large groupings. The activist. The passively interested. The knowingly ill informed. The transient. The disaffected. The ineligible. The religiously prescribed. Turnout measures the relative volume of the first two categories. The knowingly ill informed honor the system by not voting. The transient be they new to the area, passing through or soon to leave, discount their right to inflict their opinion on those who will have to live with the consequences. The disaffected may be a legitimate area of concern for those looking to improve the system, but the solution is not in changing electoral systems, but rather lives and conditions which are often also transient. The ineligible include ex felons and non citizens. Advocates for both argue for enfranchisement, but even if it were to come to pass, these people would also need to be moved into a participating process. And then there are some whose religious beliefs restrict their participation. I think my list is fairly complete. To deal seriously with turnout as an issue, these various situations should be recognized. Also leading to a lower turnout is the increasingly practical economics of campaigns. Every year more and more targeted campaigning is done. Targeted mailings and door knocking are directed to those people most likely to vote. This makes sound campaign sense, while tending to ignore the casual or yet to become regular voter. This targeted effort is more important in low turnout elections and as such will tend to re-enforce the tendency of local elections to be low turnout affairs. This phenomenon is also present in our political parties. Each party has an open door on Caucus day, next year that day is March 7th. In past years my experience is that various factions or candidates do their very best to organize their fellow travelers to attend and participate to elevate their factional influence. Much less effort is put into general recruitment of the general electorate. A process I hope to change in my District. This selective campaigning while again very practical has tended to exacerbate the tendency of political parties to drift toward polar positions. The DFL has to its credit a process that insures proportional representation at the precinct level and beyond. Thus even in a strongly pro-choice precinct a pro-life delegate can get through and continue to participate in the party, as opposed to our Republican friends, where a winner take all caucus serves to exclude undesirables. This is in part why the DFL still retains a broader diversity within its ranks than does the GOP at the state level. In summary, low turnouts are not in themselves bad, and stem from many different causes. The tendency to target voters and caucus attendees serves to increase the problem. The better available solution is to broadly recruit for precinct caucuses, the entry point for democratic action, and the primary resource in building the number of activists and passively interested participants. Earl Netwal Chair 62nd Dist DFL Facing yard full of unraked leaves having been otherwise occupied of late in
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