September 19, 2020
Saturday AM

In this campaign, I’ve spent quite a bit of time talking about how we should be working to make our local governments more effective and efficient. That same approach, I believe, should be applied to our local election process.

Peter Stanton in his August 16, 2020 letter to SitNews, titled “Let’s Fix Local Elections in Ketchikan”, brought up a very valid concern: the process by which we elect candidates to fill seats on local governing bodies for terms of varying lengths.

At the time when Mr. Stanton wrote his letter, the filing period for local office had not yet closed. Since then, filing closed, and here’s what the ballot will look like this October:

• Ketchikan City Council – 3 Three-Year Terms:
- Candidate 1
- Candidate 2
- Candidate 3
- Candidate 4
- Candidate 5
- Candidate 6
- Candidate 7
- Candidate 8

• Ketchikan City Council – 1 Two-Year Term:
- Candidate 1
- Candidate 2
- Candidate 3

• Ketchikan Borough Assembly – 3 Three-Year Terms:
- Candidate 1
- Candidate 2
- Candidate 3
- Candidate 4
- Candidate 5
- Candidate 6

• Ketchikan School Board – 2 Three-Year Terms:
- Candidate 1
- Candidate 2
- Candidate 3

• Ketchikan School Board – 2 One-Year Terms:
- Candidate 1
- Candidate 2
- Candidate 3

If you think this will make the ballot look convoluted and complicated, it definitely will. Don’t get me wrong, it is great that we have so many candidates running for local office. However, the way we currently require candidates to run in different fields for terms of different lengths is the problem. This could lead to very real scenario where someone with more voter support than other candidates on the ballot could still lose. This year, that scenario is most likely in the City Council races.
However, it doesn’t have to be this way. Ketchikan’s local elections were inherently designed to encourage policy and philosophy over personality and politics. As Mr. Stanton mentioned, the way our elections are currently structured, when there are seats on the same elected body for terms of different lengths, it requires candidates to make a political calculation in determining which seat to run for. This goes against the intended goal of making local elections about the issues, and not about adversarial politics.

If I am elected to the Borough Assembly, I will work with Borough Staff to draft and introduce an ordinance to change the method of elections for the Borough Assembly and the School Board that would enable all candidates to run in the same field for each specific body and in years where there are terms of varying lengths available, award those seats with shorter terms to the candidates based on corresponding share of the vote.

For example, what that would like this year in the City Council races:

• All 11 candidates would run in the same field.
• The top three candidates would win 3-year seat.
• The candidate in 4th place would win a 2-year seat.

While as an Assembly member I could only sponsor an ordinance that would make these changes for the Assembly and School Board since they are Borough specific positions, I would also put a motion before the Assembly that the Borough make a recommendation through Cooperative Relations Committee that the City adopt the same election procedure. This would make it uniform across all municipal elections in Ketchikan.

I would like to thank Mr. Stanton for his letter and his recommendation on a simple change that we could make locally which would have a very meaningful impact for our elections and elected bodies here in Ketchikan.

Please be sure to cast your vote in the upcoming municipal election on October 6th.
Sincerely,

Trevor Shaw
Ketchikan, Alaska

About: Trevor Shaw is running for the Ketchikan Borough Assembly.

Editor's Note:

The text of this letter was NOT edited by the SitNews Editor.

Received September 15, 2020 - Published September 19, 2020, 2020

Related Viewpoint:

Let's Fix Local Elections By Peter Stanton

SitNews ©2020
Stories In The News
Ketchikan, Alaska

Articles & photographs that appear in SitNews are considered protected by copyright and may not be reprinted without written permission from and payment of any required fees to the proper sources. E-mail your news & photos to editor@sitnews.us Photographers choosing to submit photographs for publication to SitNews are in doing so granting their permission for publication and for archiving. SitNews does not sell photographs. All requests for purchasing a photograph will be emailed to the photographer.