85% of Kansas Citians let the rest of us decide who represents them

I've never quite understood how it is that this country LOVES democracy, and yet so few people actually take part in it.

On Tuesday, just over 50,000 voters cast ballots in the primary for who would make it to the general election.  According to census data, there are roughly 330,000 people of voting age in this city.  That's just 15% participation.

Possibly even more interesting is the break out by district. Here are how the votes broke down by district (based on the total vote counts for the in-district races):

2nd: 6,543

3rd: 5,603

5th: 7,651

6th: 9,789

This leaves 21,087 votes for the 1st and 4th (which didn't have contested races) -- so roughly 10,543 votes for each of those two districts.

It's interesting of course that the districts with the most social problems tend to be most under-represented at the polls (including the 3rd, which is the probably the district with the most problems). It may then seem as no wonder that politicians are less likely to consider them when making city policies.

It is also interesting that the 1st District, which represents the Northland, is possibly the most influential district at the polls, is also the LEAST like the other districts in the city because it is much more suburban and does not deal with the same school, crime, infill issues as does the urban core.

It is also interesting that the two most affluent and engaged districts, the 1st and 4th, failed to have competitive council races. 

This isn't an indictment on any of the candidates that advanced -- certainly there were some great new politicians that are political outsiders that have advanced...including folks like Tracy Ward and even Sly James.  However, I still feel that if we are going to get the best out of our city we're going to need competitive council and mayoral races and more citizen involvement in our political process.  Without that, we may all end up being ignored and the political insiders in the city will continue to vote in their own while the majority of the city watches them do it.

Comments

[bill kostar]

The sad fact is that so few residents vote in KC, because city government is viewed, not as a public entity which represents and provides services to them, but as a small gang of insiders, consultants, developers, special-interest pleaders, identity politics shouters, and assorted hangers-on that has little interest in reuglar folks until election time. And that correct perception has been established by many year of behavior and priorities at city hall.
Maybe the new administration can change that reality through setting serious prioirties, engaging the public, and being serious about what municipal government can actually do.

[Eric Sundquist]

Isn't this the way it works? You can't really blame the 3rd district for not voting. It takes a lot of work to figure out who the candidates are and what they stand for if they don't come to your neighborhood and aggressively campaign. It is hard enough for an average joe to know who everyone is and who to vote for. But if you are worrying about how you are going to get to work, or how you will find a job, or how to feed your kids, you have more important things to do than go to the library to use their internet and read confusing and contradictory statements about who all the candidates are. And so, as you pointed out, the cycle continues. The politicians see that the poor districts don't vote, don't give money and don't have influence, so they don't try to win their votes. And we keep going.