City election not finished yet

The Gazette Editorial Board

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Maybe it's slipped your mind amid all the turkey, football and shopping, but Cedar Rapids' city election isn't over.

On Tuesday, two at-large City Council seats are up for grabs among four candidates. Incumbent Chuck Swore and challengers Carletta Knox-Seymour, Ralph Russell and Susie Weinacht are on the ballot.

The top vote-getter wins a four-year term while the second-highest wins a two-year term. The staggered terms are an attempt to better balance city elections. So 2013 is the last time a whopping six of nine council seats are on a single ballot.

The four-candidate field brings a diversity of experiences. Swore runs a small business consulting firm, Russell is a retired civil engineer, Knox-Seymour is a baker who owns her own business and Weinacht manages a local labor union chapter and directs the state's PTA. Any of the hopefuls would bring valuable skills and perspectives to the council.

We're sticking with our original endorsements of Knox-Seymour and Russell.

Knox-Seymour is in her second term serving on the City Planning Commission and understands the city's poverty and neighborhood issues, especially involving at-risk children. Russell has decades of extensive experience in dealing with infrastructure issues and municipal bonding, and is a strong backer of regional cooperation in economic development.

Regardless of who you support, we urge you to vote.

It's no surprise that very low voter turnout is expected. The general election, with a mayoral election and local-option sales tax on the ballot, drew just more than 22 percent of registered voters to the polls. That's disappointing, but the at-large runoff is likely to lower that already low bar. In 2009, only 9.3 percent of voters turned out for an at-large council runoff.

We've heard a few rumblings about some confused folks who believe that only voters who voted in the general election are allowed to vote in the runoff. The truth is, all registered voters in Cedar Rapids can vote in Tuesday's runoff.

We'd also strongly encourage those who do vote to cast ballots for two candidates.

We understand that it might seem like shrewd political strategy to vote for your favorite only, denying other candidates precious votes. But all that strategizing doesn't change the fact that there are two seats on the ballot, 22 percent of the full council, representing the entire city. And no matter how many votes you cast, two candidates will win, and their votes on the council will carry the same weight. It's important to pick the two candidates that you believe would do the best job.

Our voter guide is still up and running at thegazette.com, so there's still time to get up to speed on the candidates. It takes just a few minutes to vote. And in a low-turnout election, one vote, or in this case two, could carry a lot of clout.

Comments: editorial@thegazette.com or (319) 398-8262