Prof. Weinschenk talks municipal elections

Is it time time to stop holding municipal elections in Pennsylvania? The writer of this opinion piece reached all the way to Green Bay to talk to UW-Green Bay Prof. Aaron Weinschenk (Political Science) about it. Lining municipal elections with big general elections boosts turnout. A study Weinschenk co-authored in 2013 concluded that “shifting an election from a non-presidential year to a presidential year leads to an 18.5-point increase in turnout, on average.” Says author Paul Muschick about Weinschenk, “He told me he mentioned the idea in a presentation to local elected officials and community members in Wisconsin, and ‘their minds were blown.’ “They had never even considered that you could change the time of elections,” Weinschenk said. “There’s a real bias toward the status quo. People think the way that things have been done is how it has to be done.” See more.