Let cities vote with national races

Last week voters stayed away from the polls in Fort Myers and Cape Coral in droves.

Only about 14 percent of the electorate felt the issues - two city council races in Fort Myers and a bond issue in the Cape - were worthy of their time and vote.

Why the apathy?

Maybe it's not dispassion at all. Maybe there are just not enough headlines in the local papers or sound bites on television to get our political juices flowing.

The media does a good job covering city election issues, but how much can you report and how interesting can you make a bond issue or city council race?

That's why we think April elections are a terrible idea.

Election time is November - it's in our DNA.

We need the high-profile races - sexy battles like Bush-Kerry, or Nelson-Harris - to get and keep our attention. After all, they're the only ones with the intrigue to stay on the front pages and the cash to bombard us with reasons to vote.

So let's go back to citywide elections on even-numbered years in the fall and get the turnout up two, three or four times what it was last week.

Sure, the percentage of votes falls off as you go down the ballot. but isn't 50 percent better for democracy than 14?

Lee County Supervisor of Elections Sharon Harrington has long said that all-inclusive ballots would be too big to handle. After all, state law says she has to run all of the county's 40 special districts - like fire, mosquito control, et al - in the fall of even-numbered years.

But only a couple of those show up on individual ballots. So add a couple races in Fort Myers, a couple in the Cape and a few in Bonita Springs. With today's computer voting machines it should be a snap.

Harrington and her crew are some of the best in the state at running an election. We don't have issues like Florida's east-coast counties or the totals like Sarasota is trying to explain. Elections in Lee are smooth. Results are posted online with lightning speed. So she has the people to manage a few extra races.

If we need the ballot space, let's vote in April whether to retain Supreme Court Justices. They always keep their jobs anyway. ¦