Exactly one third of Lincoln’s registered voters cast ballots in the April city primary election, advancing Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird and Suzanne Geist, eight City Council candidates, six Lincoln Board of Education candidates and four seeking seats on the Lincoln Airport Authority to Tuesday’s general election.
That turnout was only 2% higher than in the 2019 primary, evidence that regardless of candidates, the intensity of the contests, hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign advertising, billboards and yard signs, there's a steady interest and participation in city elections.
That 66% of the city’s 176,497 voters didn’t choose to vote in the primary is far from surprising. City primaries historically have the lowest turnouts of any elections.
But city elections, both primary and general, have a far greater impact on Lincoln's day-to-day life than anything coming out of Washington, D.C., from any president or Congress.
People are also reading…
The list of what Tuesday’s elections will impact is almost endless. Let’s start with the city’s roads and streets, police and fire protection, parks, economic and housing development and property taxes.
Those taxes also figure into the school board races, as do LPS policies and curriculum, construction of new schools and creating opportunities for graduation and careers.
And the Airport Authority races will have bearing on attracting more airlines and flights to the newly remodeled airport, making travel easier for Lincolnites.
The candidates and their positions on key issues in all of the races can be found in the Journal Star’s Voters Guide, which is available online.
In 2019, some 61,000 voted in the general election, a 6% jump that brought turnout to 37%. A similar increase in Tuesday’s election, which is very likely to occur, would bring the turnout to a more respectable, if still too low, 40%.
That, however, will only happen if Lincolnites take the time to go to the polls Tuesday or make sure they get their early ballots to the Lancaster County Election Commissioner’s office by Election Day.
About 1,000 more people voted early in the primary that went to the polls, a figure that would have been higher had the 500 ballots that arrived late been counted. So, to ensure early ballots are counted — and can make a difference in the election — they need to have been mailed in time to get to the office — postmarks don’t count — or dropped off by Tuesday.
The bottom line for Tuesday, as for all elections, is to vote or have voted, the only way to get the local government representation desired by the largest number of Lincolnites, the ultimate result of our democracy.