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Local Elections
If there is a rule of thumb to use for how city governments function, it is that each local government is completely different. Based on the diversity of cities and counties throughout the nation, different systems of local government were created and adapted to fit their specific needs. There are more than 87,500 local governments, from counties to special districts that deal with issues like fire protection. There are three main styles of local governments throughout America, and each city puts its own twist on it to make it special. The three styles are Mayor-Council, Commission, and Council-manager.
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Mayor Council
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The oldest and most common system used throughout America up until the 20th Century. This system is essentially a miniature form of our national government, featuring an elected mayor at the head of the Executive Branch, who then appoints heads of city departments and other officials. Then there is also an elected council that is similar to the Legislative Branch and represents the various areas of town. They pass ordinances, can adjust taxes, and depending on the city may control the budget. The mayor has ultimate veto powers over ordinances and prepares the budget in some cities. |
| The Commision |
This system essentially combines the Executive Branch and Legislative Branch of a Mayor-Council system into one elected group of officils. Each commissioner supervises one or more city departments. Often, one member of the board is named mayor, even though he or she does not have any extra powers. |
| Council-Manager |
This plan gives almost all of the executive power to a City Manager, who often has experience or a greater technical understanding of the city. In this plan, a small elected organization creates ordinances that are then given to the City Manager to carry out. The City Manager controls the budget, as well as supervises most of the City Departments. In different cities, the City Manager will have different term limits, and in some cities may not even have one at all. |
However, to give you a deeper understanding of one way that a city government functions, I’ll show you how
elections work in our home city of Tucson by following Chad along the process.
First, we need to make sure that Chad is eligible to vote. In Tucson, you must reside in the city while voting, and you must have lived in the city for at least a month. Chad has lived in Tucson all of his life, so no worries about that. He turned 18 a couple months ago, registered to vote, and now as he walks out of the door, he just needs to make sure he has a form of identification and he will be set. Next, Chad goes to his local polling location between 6 a.m. And 7 p.m. The day of the election. When he enters the voting booth, he sees a ballot that contains the names of the candidates and the positions they are running for. Also, if there are proposition on this ballot, then there is a place to vote for those as well as a section describing each proposition and giving a couple of arguments for both side of the proposition. After submitting his ballot, Chad is all finished!
But what if Chad had been away on vacation on election day, what could he possibly do? Well, he could request an early ballot to be mailed to him, and then he could send in the early ballot by the time the polls close on voting day to have his vote count. Or, he could go to the Pima Country Recorder’s Office during the month previous to the election and cast his vote early then.
Now that we have seen how Chad can vote for his local government, let’s look at how Tucson’s local government is structured.
Tucson has a council-manager form of government, meaning that the Council and Mayor control law making and policies. They appoint a City manager to carry out what is decided by the Council and Mayor.
Requirements:
The candidate must have been a resident of Tucson for three years, and resided in their ward for one year prior to becoming a candidate, unless redistricting of the City has interfered.
The road to election:
First, the candidate must be elected in a primary election by their respective party (see these parties do actually matter!) If the candidate is not a member of the Democratic, Republican, or Libertarian party, they can be on the general election ballot by obtaining the proper number of signatures or by filing as a write-in candidate. Then they campaign, which can include commercials on TV, radio commercials, billboards, signs, and conversing with constituents. The main factor that contributes to a candidates campaign is the fundings they receive; however, there are strict rules to how much money can be given by different groups.
Now all that is left is to see how the candidate does in the elction against the other candidates!
Now let's take a look at elections on the county level
Once again, each county has its own separate system for governing, and the elections differ based on their system. Just to give you a general idea of what county elections look like, we will look at Pima County.
Pima County has a Board of Supervisors, which consists of five people. The board is lead by the Presiding Chair Member, with a logical flow of Vice-chair, and then Acting Chair. To run for these positions, a candidate first has to be elected in a primary election about two months before the general election (parties really do matter, I promise!) Then, they go to the general election, where every eligible voter can vote for whichever candidate they prefer regardless of party ties.
Overall, city and county elections are very similar. However, they are fairly different from state and national elections, which you will examine in the next couple sections.
Next Section: State Elections
Information (in order) taken from:
"Four Historic Forms of City Government" < http://www.nlc.org/about_cities/cities_101/163.aspx > (12 December 2009).
"Frequently Asked Questions about City Government < http://cms3.tucsonaz.gov/localgov > (13 November, 2009).
"Pima County" < http://www.pima.gov/ > (13 Novermber, 2009).
"Contribution limits" < http://www.tucsonaz.gov/clerks/pdf/contributionlimits.pdf > (13 November, 2009).
Comments (1)
mberry said
at 9:32 am on Nov 17, 2009
this is solid!
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