More local races joining November's big tickets

Despite savings, some wonder if too many ads will confuse voters

Blacksburg voters will choose their mayor and City Council on Tuesday, the first time local elections have been held in November, joining towns and cities across Virginia that have moved local contests from May so they coincide with higher-profile state and national general elections.

Although the governor's race and other state campaigns have captured most of the attention, six Virginia towns and Charlottesville will elect council members Tuesday. Seven years after the state legislature passed a law making it easier for localities to switch their election dates, at least 35 towns and cities now have municipal elections in November.

More are in the pipeline. The Alexandria City Council approved an ordinance in June that will move council elections to November in 2012. Loudoun County's Electoral Board secretary, Dianna Price, has been encouraging all seven incorporated towns in her cash-strapped county to consider it.

The switch, done to save money and increase turnout, can also reshape municipal politics.

Blacksburg council member Susan Anderson, the only incumbent on the ballot in the college town of 40,000, supported the change. But she was caught off-guard by the increased level of campaigning. She and other candidates said advertisements and direct mail matter more because voters in the November race will be less informed about local issues than those who make the effort to vote in off-cycle elections.

"In May [elections], we were the news," said Anderson, a Virginia Tech math instructor. "Now there's just so many races with so many people that it's harder for our citizens to absorb all the information about all the candidates."

Such concern is prompting some pushback. Leesburg's council voted 5 to 2 last Tuesday to reject a proposed change after a public hearing.

In Christiansburg, six miles from Blacksburg, many voters are expected to oppose a ballot proposal that would move their elections from May to November. Fairfax and Prince William counties' registrars said there's no widespread support for a switch in their jurisdictions.

Apprehensions

Price said Leesburg could save between $10,000 and $12,000 by making the shift. But council member David S. Butler said he would rather keep turnout low if it meant having more informed voters.

"I think I'd rather have 18 percent come out and know all 18 percent came out for the town elections," he said.

In fact, turnout was 8 percent for the May 2008 Leesburg council election. In one precinct, 3 percent of eligible voters showed up. But although 1,902 of Leesburg's 23,158 registered voters turned out in May, 9,107 voted six months later in the presidential election.

Leesburg's council is nonpartisan, and a few of its members are genuine independents. Leesburg's independents fear losses if both parties actively backed competitive slates.