Joan Johnson doesn’t care which candidate people vote for Tuesday. She simply hopes they vote.
“I would hope,” Johnson said in a phone interview, “we would see a better turnout for this primary.”
Johnson is president of the Syracuse chapter of League of Women Voters, a non-partisan group that promotes public engagement in elections and public affairs. For her and others who pay attention to elections, primaries — like the election on Tuesday — are a particular concern.
Primaries are notorious for attracting few voters, Jeffrey Stonecash, a political scientist at Syracuse University who specializes in New York state politics, said in an interview with Democracywise reporters.
The Onondaga County Board of Elections could not provide any recent primary turnout statistics. But in the last general election for county executive in 2003, only 33 percent of registered voters went to the polls.
For Tuesday, political scientist Stonecash predicts a turnout of 25 percent or less.
And that’s too bad, say political scientists and those who promote civic activities. Voters who skip the primary, say political and civic-engagement experts, are missing out on a vital step in democracy — helping to choose their party’s candidates.
“It’s going to determine what kind of candidates are presented to the electorate,” Stonecash said.
Primary elections, especially in local races, usually have much lower voter turnout than general elections, said Stonecash.
For one thing, New York state law dictates that primaries be closed elections. Only registered party members can vote in their own party’s election.
In Onondaga County, this discounts a fourth of potential voters. Twenty-five percent of registered voters are not enrolled in any political party, according to the most recent Onondaga County Board of Election statistics.
People who choose to vote in primaries tend to be habitual voters who are more attentive to politics, SU political science professor Grant Reeher said in a phone interview.
Stonecash agreed. “You’re talking about only hardcore dedicated party people who vote in these things.”
But in single-party dominated districts, the primary election is often the most important election, Stonecash said, because it is very hard for the candidate from the minority party to win the general election.
In these districts, Stonecash said, the primary “is where the real race is.”
In local elections, Tuesday’s primaries features for two offices: Onondaga County executive and Syracuse Common Council seat in District 4. For county executive, both Republican and Democratic parties have a primary. The county executive position is open because 20-year incumbent Nicholas Pirro is stepping down.
In the county executive primaries:
- For Republicans, former Common Council member Joanie Mahoney is challenging the party’s nominee, long-time county legislator Dale Sweetland.
- For Democrats, their county legislative floor leader Edward Ryan is challenging state assemblyman Bill Magnarelli, who was nominated by the party.
In the city of Syracuse District 4, newcomer Charles Pierce-El will challenge incumbent and party designee Tom Seals for the Democratic nomination for Common Council seat. Republicans have no candidate in District 4, so the Democratic primary winner is likely to be the winner in the general election on Nov. 6.
To force a primary election, hopefuls can challenge the candidate chosen by the members of the local party committee by gathering a designated number of valid signatures from registered party members, SU political scientist Stonecash said. To challenge for the county executive nominations, Mahoney and Ryan both had to gather at least 2,000 signatures. For the Common Council seat in District 4, Pierce-El had to gather at least 354 signatures.
In New York, candidates can end up on the general election ballot even if they lose the primary. The state has a “quite unusual” law, said Stonecash, that allows candidates to run on multiple party lines. Many of the local candidates have chosen to do so.
For example, for the District 4 seat on the Common Council, incumbent Tom Seals is running with the endorsements of the Democratic, Independence and Working Families parties. So if he loses the Democratic primary on Tuesday, Seals could still run in November as the nominee of the other two parties.
But it is hard for a candidate without a major party’s endorsement to win the general election, political scientist Stonecash said.
For her part, Johnson of the League of Women Voters, urges voters to realize how unusual this year’s primary is. With Pirro retiring, the county executive’s race is open for the first time in 20 years. The winner of the election will be only the third person ever to hold the office. And, said Johnson, the office is important.
“It will determine,” said Johnson, “how our county government runs for the next four years. I would hope people would go out there and make a choice.”
(Melanie Hicken is a junior newspaper major)
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