Move elections to pull the most voters

Aside from mayoral and city commission candidates who came up short in Tuesday’s election, Fort Lauderdale residents turned out to be the biggest Election Day losers.

Most people aren’t paying attention to an election held in January, as evidenced by the paltry voter turnout in Tuesday’s city election.

Only about 12 percent of the city’s registered voters cast ballots — and that was better than expected. After all, just 7.2 percent of voters participated during the last mayoral election in 2015.

We’re glad to see the uptick, but Fort Lauderdale should change its rules and start holding elections in November, when more voters are lured to the polls to vote for president, governor and other high-profile races.

Broward County’s voter turnout topped 70 percent during the November 2016 presidential election. And during the November 2014 governor’s race, nearly 45 percent of Broward County voters participated.

City elections could benefit from that kind of voter involvement.

Low turnout is historically a problem for municipal races, most of which are held in March.

Fort Lauderdale this year opted to start even earlier to allow more time for mailing overseas ballots in time for the March 13 runoff between the top two vote getters — settling races where none of the candidates in the general election got 50 percent plus 1 of the vote.

It does make sense for Fort Lauderdale to have a runoff election to ensure that the winner has majority support. But that win doesn’t carry much of a mandate if so few of the city’s about 120,500 registered voters show up to cast ballots.

Holding this year’s election in January was almost asking for it to be ignored.

Fort Lauderdale’s candidate qualifying occurred in November, a few weeks before Thanksgiving. The holiday craziness that followed dominated our collective attention span until the ball dropped on New Year’s.

By then, the campaign was nearing the finish line just as many city residents were figuring out it was almost time to vote.

Sure, political junkies don’t have to be reminded about municipal elections.

Also, developers, contractors, lobbyists and others whose business interests are tied to swaying city decisions surely know when to start making their campaign contributions.

And police and firefighter unions, civic associations and other politically active organizations backing one candidate or the other will rally their people to turn out on Election Day. Or even better for the campaigns trying to lock in votes, they will send in absentee ballots.

But the important issues the city faces — from fixing failing water and sewer pipes, to overcoming traffic congestion and tackling sea level rise — are too large to leave to such a small slice of the population picking our leaders.

Fort Lauderdale’s charter calls for holding its initial election round on the second Tuesday of February.

Yet, this year’s elections were moved up to Jan. 16 after concerns that there wouldn’t be time to send ballots overseas to voters 45 days before the March 13 date set for runoffs.

Holding the election earlier, this year or any, isn’t the way to encourage more voters to participate. Fort Lauderdale should move its elections to November, when voters are already casting ballots for state and national elections.

The city could still use its runoff approach, timing the first round of elections with state and national primaries held in August and then holding the city runoffs in November.

A goal of any election, Fort Lauderdale’s included, should be to encourage as many eligible citizens as possible to cast a vote.

Piggybacking city elections with state and federal elections would capitalize on the interest those larger campaigns generate.

People who won’t show up just for mayoral or city commission races would be more likely to participate if they are already going to the polls to vote for president, governor or members of Congress.

Holding municipal, state and federal elections at the same time could also save taxpayers money.

Adding more names to the ballot in the fall would be a better investment than the nearly $380,000 the Broward County Supervisor of Elections’ Office estimated it would spend opening polling places and assembling election workers for Tuesday’s sparsely-attended, stand-alone city election.

Municipal leaders in Fort Lauderdale and other communities have balked at moving their elections to November, saying they don’t want city races overshadowed by state and federal political fights.

But an unwillingness to share the political stage doesn’t pay off for Fort Lauderdale and other cities if so few people show up on Election Day.

Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Rosemary O’Hara, Elana Simms, Andy Reid and Editor-in-Chief Howard Saltz.