Analysis: Even-year elections could save thousands, restore trust, and improve government

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Bruises from this year’s election season could be felt beyond the jabs of sparring candidates. Local democracy itself took a considerable beating.

The 11% voter turnout remained near historic, rock-bottom levels. Conspiracy-minded attacks may have persuaded city councilors to reverse their support for election reform — making New Bedford the only city in Massachusetts to defy election experts’ advice to hold an earlier preliminary. Meanwhile, city councilors cut $85,943 from the city’s election department (or roughly 13% of the department) to greatly reduce a local census effort.

But New Bedford’s problems aren’t unique, and local elections don’t have to run like this. 

Nationwide momentum has been building around a policy that — proposed by both Republicans and Democrats in red and blue states — has been proven to significantly cut election costs while simultaneously doubling, or even tripling voter turnout: holding local elections in even-numbered years alongside state or federal elections.

Local municipalities have seen significant cost-savings in states where it’s been implemented, which researchers say is the primary motivation for cities to make the change. But even-year elections  also have “by far the largest impact on voter turnout,” when compared to other voter turnout interventions.

The net effect has been higher participation, with more than 5 million additional voters turning out for local elections, according to Zoltan Hajnal, a researcher from University of California San Diego. And the electorate overwhelmingly likes the change, with 70% of Americans surveyed approving the idea, Hajnal told the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).

However, there would be significant obstacles to implementing this change in New Bedford. In equal measure, local resistance and the mechanics of Massachusetts’ election system are sustaining the status quo. 

How local elections work

In New Bedford, the elections department now spends around $700,000 annually. Every year it helps to run some kind of contest, alternating between local, state, and federal elections.

In odd (local election only) years, the main election costs are staffing, renting venues, printing ballots, and hiring security needed to administer the 36 city-wide polling places — both in the preliminary and general election. 

Even in uncontested races, these costs remain (like this past year, when half the ward councilor races and the city assessor were uncontested). These bills must also be paid regardless of how many people show up. (Precincts 2A and 3C each had 50 or fewer votes cast, including absentee and mail-in ballots.) 

In even-numbered years (for state and federal elections), the city saves some money because it doesn’t have to design or print the ballots, but there are added costs for facilitating in-person early voting, processing more mail-in ballots, and having more precincts to run. (There are 41 precincts in state elections that share voting locations with existing precincts, but require their own staffing, according to Election Commission Chairman Manny DeBrito.)

Moving local elections to even-numbered years could save money by reducing the total number of elections that must be conducted. The main benefit for voters would be fewer elections and increased local turnout by piggy-backing on the higher interest of the bigger elections. 

Local and state officials, however, say it’s not so simple.

How has it worked elsewhere? How would it work here?

At least 12 states enacted laws in 2025 that aimed to consolidate local elections with state and federal timelines. States including New York, California, Arizona, Nevada, and Louisiana have all passed these laws in recent years. Their results have proved it works. 

In San Francisco, local turnout about doubled when local elections moved to even-numbered years — now 78% of residents vote for mayor. In Las Vegas, turnout in the mayoral election (which, at 10%, was similar to recent turnout in New Bedford) increased more than five-fold, to 58%.

In Phoenix, 20% participation in 2015 shot to 54% in 2018. When that city returned to an odd-year election, in 2019, its turnout fell back to 22%. Then it more-than-tripled to 77% when an even-year contest was held, in 2020. 

But none of these states are in New England, and that makes a difference.

“The fact that other states do it doesn’t really impact us,” said DeBrito “Every state has their own voter laws,” and in Massachusetts those laws are not conducive to this change. 

In Massachusetts and across New England, “local elections are distinct from state elections … they’re run by different officials and on different timelines,” said Debra O’Malley, a spokesperson for the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office. 

To run local and state elections at the same time would mean running separate, but concurrent elections. This would increase the complexity and eat into the savings. 

At each polling place, for example, there would be separate check-ins for the local and state election, requiring two sets of staff looking over two different voter rolls. 

The mail-in process would be worse, as each voter would receive two different ballots in two different envelopes for the two different elections. If one ballot went into the wrong envelope, or was returned by the wrong date, it wouldn’t count. “If two ballots were in the same envelope, neither could be accepted,” O’Malley said. 

On top of all this, New Bedford would be the singularly most difficult place in Massachusetts to run concurrent elections. That’s because New Bedford’s preliminary happens on a different timeline than the state’s primary (owing to New Bedford’s insistence on holding an October preliminary).

Holding concurrent local and state elections would mean New Bedford would first have to make these other changes that, so far, it has not been willing to do. 

Lastly, even if local consensus formed around moving local elections, the process for changing the law likely requires state approval. That’s not guaranteed. 

One method to make the change would be to draft a charter amendment that would change the date of New Bedford’s elections, and submit that to a special session of the state legislature for approval. 

“If it went through the legislature, it would be presented to our office for comment,” said O’Malley. “We may or may not oppose it,” she said.

The other route would be to elect a local charter commission, a special body tasked with drafting changes to the city charter. That draft would then be put to voters in a local referendum. 

Why things are the way they are

When the dean of New Bedford’s City Council, the 34-year veteran councilor Brian Gomes, voiced his opposition to an earlier preliminary, he said, “It’s been like that forever and a day.” 

But local elections haven’t actually been like this “forever.” 

The idea of moving local elections to off-cycle years was a Progressive reform of the late 19th century. The reformers believed that interest in local elections could be drowned out by national contests. There may have also been concerns about the burden of hand-counted elections, according to NCSL. 

Experts now believe, however, that the depressed turnout in odd-year elections have done much more to squelch interest in local elections, especially among younger voters and minority groups. 

Furthermore, changing elections is always a hard sell. Any proposed change must convince voters that the reform isn’t motivated by partisan electioneering. 

In this case, evidence supports that. Hajnal, the UCSD researcher, found that even-year elections are not inherently partisan. “On-cycle elections do not offer a consistent partisan advantage to either Democrats or Republicans,” Hajnal said. “Liberal cities tend to remain liberal, and conservative cities tend to stay conservative, whether turnout expands or contracts.” 

What does change with even-year elections is the people’s power, at least compared to interest groups. Those interest groups (such as unions and industry groups) have more sway in odd-year election outcomes, when turnout is lower. In New Bedford and across Massachusetts, many of these interest groups now dominate election spending. 

When turnout is much higher, the spending of interest groups matters less, the research has found. 

In New Bedford, change hardly ever comes easily. With an uphill climb to make any change to local elections, the real question for city councilors and local voters is whether the present 11% turnout is a status quo worth defending. 

Email Colin Hogan at chogan@newbedfordlight.org

---