Searcy's Nonpartisan Elections

In the November 2009 City Council meeting, the Searcy City Council passed Resolution 2009-15. Aldermen voting for it were "Arnett, Dixon, Sterling, English and Chalenburg." Those voting against were "Nutter, Liles and Brewer." This resolution made all city elections nonpartisan.

What is a nonpartisan election?
The two differences between the 2008 partisan election and the 2010 nonpartisan election are:

• The candidates did not compete in party primaries
• The candidates will not have their party affiliation listed on the November ballot

However, the candidates still retain their party affiliation, and they are likely to behave in the future the way they have in the past. Taking a Ward 3 race as an example, instead of Democrat Dale English competing in a Democrat primary and running this November as a Democrat, he will be listed on the ballot as an independent candidate. The same goes for Republican Derek Glover. He did not face a Republican primary, and his Republican party affiliation will not be on the ballot either.

Partisan vs Nonpartisan Elections
The National League of Cities (NLC), the U.S.-wide equivalent of the Arkansas Municipal League, lists the key arguments against nonpartisan elections:

• "Absence of party labels confuses voters; a voter who must choose from among a group of candidates who he or she knows nothing about will have no meaningful basis in casting a ballot;
• In absence of party ballot, voters will turn to whatever cue is available, and often this cue turns out to be the ethnicity of a candidate's name;
• Non-partisanship tends to produce elected officials more representative of the upper socioeconomic strata than of the general populace and aggravate the class bias in voting turnout, namely because in true non-partisan systems there are no organizations of local party workers to bring lower-class citizens to the polls on election day; and
• Non-partisanship destroys resources important to coalition building and effective governance."

On the other hand, NLC says the main argument for nonpartisan elections is "political parties are irrelevant to providing services; experts and professionals should determine the service needs of the constituents."

New York City has periodically considered the merits of nonpartisan elections. As nonpartisan elections were debated again this past June, the Wall Street Journal Metropolis blog had a news story citing the work of David Schleicher, who has researched nonpartisan elections. His conclusions echo the arguments against nonpartisan elections listed by NLC. They make it harder for voters to learn the facts about candidates, they lead to the election of social or economic elites, and they reduce voter turnout.

What Do We Do?
As voters in the Searcy city elections this November, we must turn lemons into lemonade. Our responsibility is to overcome the obstacles these nonpartisan elections place in our path and identify where the candidates stand on the issues. The facts about our candidates past deeds and their current party affiliation will tell volumes about the type of elected officials they will be.