Unheralded, important elections loom in Mill Valley, Novato

This coming Tuesday, Mill Valley and Novato are conducting special elections.

Mill Valley's balloting is to fill one unexpired term on its fiveperson city council. Two first-rate candidates are running: attorney Caroline Joachim and businessperson Susan Gladwin.

Novato has a single item on its ballot: Measure A. It asks voters within the boundaries of the Novato Unified School District if a measure should be adopted renewing the existing $251 parcel tax at the current rate, providing $4 million annually for eight years, “with senior exemptions, independent oversight, no funds for administration and all funding for Novato students.” To pass, Measure A requires a two-thirds supermajority.

Both races will see low voter participation. I suspect few northern Marin residents or

Mill Valley residents know that Tuesday is Election Day.

Voters need neutral information to knowingly cast their ballots. In Mill Valley's council race, there's an easy way to learn about the candidates. Check for the IJ's coverage. Additionally, I moderated a candidate forum sponsored by the Coalition of Sensible Taxpayers. Watch the video at COSTMarin.org.

In that forum, candidates produced illuminating responses to this request: “Name someone in government or politics that if you're elected you will regard as a role model.” Both replied that no one had asked them that before. My goal was to have candidates think on their feet in front of a live audience.

Both replies were revealing, Gladwin's first role model was New York City progressive Rep.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Her second role model is Rep. Nancy Pelosi. Joachim replied that her role model is rock-solid former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who served during former President Barack Obama's administration.

Every registered voter in Mill Valley and Novato has already received a paper ballot along with their voter information guide.

If readers have not already voted, please read the handbook, decide and then mail your ballot in the postpaid envelope right away. To be counted, postal ballots must be postmarked no later than Tuesday.

If you are one not to trust the Postal Service or wait until the very last minute, ballots can be placed in secure ballot drop boxes located at Mill Valley's city hall and community center. In Novato, the secure drop box is at City Hall.

Unless many voters act within the next two days, both elections will experience dismal participation. It's typical that balloting in low profile special elections conducted in off years have low turnouts.

Marin Registrar of Voters Lynda Roberts said her department mailed 39,804 ballots to registered voters in Novato and 10,777 in Mill Valley. Earlier in the week, she reported that only 1,918 Mill Valley ballots (17.8%) have been returned to her office. In the Novato school tax election, as of last Tuesday, just 9,139 (23%) of completed ballots have been received.

If past off-year school board tax elections are any guide, low voter participation will not stymie passage of Novato's school tax. Administrators, active parents, teachers and school trustees understand that in low turnout, one-issue elections, the side that is the most motivated and best organized almost always gets their supporters to vote. It's no harm to their cause if potential “no” voters fail to show up.

Novato's school tax election is a replay of November 2020 balloting, when a measure to continue the current schools parcel tax lost. The tax expires in June. The 2020 proposition increased the amount of the annual tax and added an automatic cost-of-living living adjustment.

That was a step too far for normally generous Novato voters. This time a citizens “blue ribbon” advisory panel made the commonsense recommendation that trustees dump the tax increase and the cost adjustment, which explains why this version of Measure A has no formal opposition.