Low voter turnout costs Scott County school districts

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By Sheena Dooley | Tuesday, September 12, 2006 12:11 PM CDT | () comments

TODAY: (Updated 12:04 p.m.) Most of the people who school boards represent play no role in picking their leaders.

School board members decide who leads their district, how millions of dollars in taxpayers’ money are spent, which schools students attend, and what educational programs are offered.

But in the past three years, school board elections in Scott County yielded just under 3 percent in voter turnout, compared with 55 to 70 percent in general elections, said Karen Fitzsimmons, Scott County auditor.

“Fifty cents of every tax dollar goes to the local school district,” Fitzsimmons said. “But less than 2 percent of voters are deciding where that tax money is going. You would think more people would be interested.”

School districts foot the bill for the elections, which cost as much as $20,000 per district, depending on the size of the district. A large number of those expenses come from printing thousands of ballots that are never used and paying for workers and polling places that might only see a handful of people come through their door.

For example, in 2004, it cost the Pleasant Valley School District $104 for each of the 41 votes that residents cast. Those who voted represented just more than 1 percent of total registered voters in the district.

Local election costs outpace the statewide average and have fewer residents that participate. Statewide, school board elections have an average voter turnout of 5 percent, with an average cost of $2,000.

“School board members’ oversight of what we do is very important; not only for now but for the future,” said Julio Almanza, Davenport School District superintendent. “If you truly want to have a vibrant and prosperous community, you have to have a successful school system. It is what will attract families to the site. It is what will attract businesses to the site. Success is really tied hand to hand.”

Iowa is one of a few states that holds school board elections separate from the regular primary and general elections, which some say contributes to the low voter turnout. In recent years, various legislators have introduced bills to change the law dictating when elections are held. But those efforts have been quickly squelched.

Fitzsimmons and Charles Krogmeier, Iowa’s first deputy secretary of state, said that was largely because of the way school district boundaries are drawn. Many overlap into multiple counties and cities, making it hard to align polling places with other elections. Also, state education groups, such as the Iowa Association of School Boards, do not support such a move, officials said.

Lisa Bartusek, associate executive director of the state school board association, said her group does not think combining the election with other elections will solve the problem. Instead, it would create more issues, she said.

The timing of the election allows new board members to start their terms at the beginning of the school year, allowing them to gain experience before being thrown into budget and teacher salary issues, she said. Also, holding the election in September separates it from partisan races. School board members are nonpartisan.

Deborah Dayman, president of the Pleasant Valley School Board, agreed with Bartusek, adding the current set-up brings more attention to school board members.

“It’s important that the focus be on the schools,” Dayman said. “If it was a general election or a primary election there wouldn’t be any room for school board things, especially uncontested races. It would be overlooked. This gives the public the opportunity to focus on their school district and who is offering their time to act on behalf of the residents of the district.”

Sheena Dooley can be contacted at (563)383-2363 or sdooley@qctimes.com.

Election Day

Today is school board election day across Iowa, and Quad-City region ballots include a smattering of contested races.

Polling hours vary according to the school district. For instance, polls in the Pleasant Valley district are open from noon to 8 p.m., but they are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the other Scott County districts.

By the numbers

The cost to hold a school board election comes from printing ballots, publishing a ballot notice in the newspaper, coding election machines, training workers, renting space for voters to cast their ballots and paying election workers, among other things. The Scott County Auditor’s Office bills individual school districts for those expenses, which are paid by tax dollars. Here’s a breakdown of some of those numbers.

The costs

29.5 cents — Cost to print one ballot.

6 — The percent of printed ballots used during the 2005 school board election. About 52,756 unused ballots were thrown away.

$12,000 — Cost to program all voting machines in Scott County.

$3,640 — Cost to rent 28 polling places

Voter turnout

The numbers of voters that cast ballots at school board elections fall below numbers from other elections. And it is a number that has steadily declined in the past 20 years in Scott County.

2005 voter turnout: 2.95 percent

2005 cost of election: $21,320

2005 cost per vote: $6.70

2004 voter turnout: 2.65 percent

2004 cost of election: $32,506

2004 cost per vote: $13.60

2003 voter turnout: 6 percent

2003 cost of election: $34,918

2003 cost per vote: $5.90

At a glance

Today is school board election day across Iowa, and Quad-City region ballots include a smattering of contested races.

Polling hours vary according to the school district. For instance, polls in the Pleasant Valley district are open from noon to 8 p.m., but they are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the other Scott County districts.

Here is a look at the four Scott County district races:

Davenport

Ken Krumwiede is running against Brenda Moore for a two-year term. Paul Baresel, a high school student, has announced he is running a write-in campaign for the seat.

Incumbents Patt Zamora and Larry Roberson are running unopposed for two three-year terms.

Bettendorf

Paul Castro, an incumbent, Betsy Justis, Tom Luton, an incumbent, and Scott Tinsman are running for two three-year terms.

North Scott

Steve Abney, incumbent Rex Masterson and Karen Storjohann are running for two three-year terms.

Pleasant Valley

Daniel W. Schurr, an incumbent, Heather Witters and Joanne R. Messman, an incumbent, are all running unopposed.

More information

Voting information in Scott County, including help finding your election precinct, visit the county auditor’s Web site, scott countyiowa.com/auditor.

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in Clinton County and the Muscatine School District, but voting hours are limited to noon to 8 p.m. elsewhere in Muscatine County as well as in Jackson, Louisa and Cedar counties.

Who to call

Here is a list of telephone numbers for more voting information in the Iowa Quad-City region:

Scott County — (563) 326-VOTE (8683)

Cedar County — (563) 886-3168

Clinton County — (563) 244-0568

Jackson County — (563) 652-3144

Louisa County — (319) 523-3371

Muscatine County — (563) 263-5821