November Election Testimony

[Dollar$ and Sense]

My name is Richard Snyder. For five terms I have been a Board of Education member. At least once in each of those terms, the issue of moving school elections has become a hot topic. I have come to understand the many different perspectives.

I believe that there are very sound management reasons not to have Board of Education elections in November, but there is a more telling reality. Year after year, in Ramsey, 13-18% of our voters go to the polls. We all agree that this is a very small number, but it delivers the telling message. People choose not to vote. I remind you that November 2007, all Legislative positions were on the table. The opportunity was there to express satisfaction or discontent. This was the most important election in years, it occurred in November, and only three of ten people chose to vote. For all of the concerns people express, they just have to go to the polls and vote, and yet they don’t. At referendum time they show up. If we put art on a cart, they show up. As it is, they don’t vote because they don’t want to. April, June, or November, doesn’t make the difference and that won’t change until people re-learn about civic responsibility

As a Board of Education candidate it is my responsibility to get my message to voters in my community. In November, I must compete for these voters’ attention with the partisan elections. It doesn’t matter that I am nonpartisan. The November elections have parties and funding behind them. Where I live, it is the Bergen County machine. Other counties have similar power groups. I’m just a hard working volunteer, with a passion. My extensive experience, my dedication, and my school knowledge make me a good School Board member by any and all standards. I dedicate one half of my working life to school related responsibilities. I cannot spend the time or the money to compete for press attention with a candidate that happens to be affiliated with the party in power. At election time, power means money. I can’t give up so much of my working life and still have the funding to pay for the advertising that makes enough noise for me to be heard.

As with many businesses and organizations, continuity on a School Board is a terrific asset. Make me bump heads in a politically partisan election and you won’t see my name on the ballot. We hear from knowledgeable people, all of the time, that they don’t envy us. They say we do a thankless job. If that is sincere, then why make it tougher for us to get elected? Those that want to vote do so. Those that don’t, don’t.