Chattanooga City Council discusses moving election day

City Councilwoman Deborah Scott said Thursday that council members need to take a serious look at moving the city's municipal election to save money and make it more convenient to voters.

"A lot of people expressed concern to me," she said. "It's hard for people to take the time to vote."

Mrs. Scott first brought up the idea during a council informational meeting, proposing to move the election to coincide with national elections in November. City elections now are held in March.

However, most council members said they'd be more in favor of moving the election to August -- when state primary and county general elections take place -- fearing that local elections would be overshadowed every four years by presidential elections.

November would be especially brutal, said Councilman Peter Murphy. It would take more money to run for office because council members and mayoral candidates would be competing for time with presidential contenders, he said.

"I think if we move it to November, then we're guaranteeing only the very wealthy run," he said.

On the flip side, Councilman Andraé McGary said if the election remains in March, there may be low voter turnout this year and overall election fatigue.

"You can run the risk of voter apathy," he said.

City Attorney Mike McMahan said Tuesday that it would take a public referendum to change the city's election day. With the next election set for March, there is time to pass such a resolution, he said.

Mrs. Scott also said money could be saved if the election date was moved.

Charlotte Mullis-Morgan, deputy administrator of the Hamilton County Election Commission, said Thursday there could be some significant savings. She could not give an exact dollar figure, she said, but if the city's election were held in November at the same time as the general election, Chattanooga would share costs in newspaper advertisements, ballots and audits.

"It probably won't be the $100,000 the city has paid in the past," she said.

But there also could be a potential snag, she said. The City Charter states that "all City Council members shall be elected to four-year terms of office." Since all nine council members started new terms in March, to meet the charter's rules they might have to serve until 2014 -- as opposed to 2013, when their terms are now scheduled to end -- rather than shorten their terms if a new election date is set for next year, she said.

Any referendum would have to include shortening the council's election terms, Mr. McMahan said.

August is also the time when judges run, and the ballots could be much longer for the voter, she said.

Councilman Manny Rico said he does not agree with changing the election date because he has not seen any reason to change it. With all the other elections going on at the same time, the local elections could get "lost in the shuffle," he said.

"It's worked fine the way it is," he said.