State Senator Bill Clabough (R-Sevier/Blount) lost his first battle with an idea to streamline state elections. The Senate Judiciary Committee defeated SJR 698 on a 3-4 vote last Tuesday.
“I had two goals in mind: one was to put the elections on a cycle where most people already vote, and the other was to save money,” said Clabough from his Nashville office.
The resolution would have amended the Tennessee Constitution by increasing the terms of House members from two years to four years. Various local government offices would have had their terms extended so that their general elections could be moved from August to November. The shift would have consolidated elections on the state level. State Senate and House members would then have been up for election at the same time as the Governor and President of the United States.
“It would put election cycles where most people vote, in the general election of Governor and the election of the President,” said the Maryville Senator.
Voter turnout is statistically higher for those elections and primaries than it is when just local or state offices are on the ballot. Federal elections for Congress, the House of Representatives every two years, and the United States Senate every six years cannot be changed by a state. Voter turnout for those offices in Tennessee has followed a trend to be lower when the Governor or President is not on the ballot.
Sevierville, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg currently hold odd-year local elections for city officials. The municipalities pay a flat fee to the County Election Commission for running those stand-alone elections that fall just a week apart from each other. The town of Pittman Center holds their local elections on the November cycle already. The state estimates that city and county governments would save a total of $10 million a year statewide by adjusting their election cycles to Clabough’s plan.
“It’s six of one and half a dozen of the other. It just might be more work on the office staff to do city elections with November elections,” said Liz Nichols, Sevier County Election Commission Administrator. “You’re obviously going to have nice quiet odd years, but it would be extra work on the staff for those November elections (in even years).”
The joint resolution is dead for this two-year legislative session, but Clabough can file it again during the 104th General Assembly starting 2005. “I’ll file it again next year, if I’m back,” said Clabough who is up for re-election in the August primary and November general election.
The Senator noted that the committee didn’t offer any criticism of his idea, but did discuss the unusually large number of resolutions proposing changes to the state constitution this year. Twenty such measures were filed in this assembly. “I think it was just because of the number of attempts to change the constitution. There is just a negative feeling about those kinds of changes this year,” said Clabough.
For the resolution to go into effect, the Senate and House would have to approve the measure by a majority in the 104th Assembly, then approve it by a two-thirds majority in the 105th Assembly, which will convene in 2007. If it secured those votes, the resolution would then be put on the ballot in 2008 with the Governor’s election. The defeat this year did not push back the resolution’s effective date as it would still have had to wait for the 2008 election.

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