A Grand Rapids citizen-led effort is calling on the City Commission to change the way it holds its elections, as Tuesday commissioners heard arguments in favor of moving the vote from odd to even years.
The group is called Empower the Citizens, and if the name sounds familiar, it’s the same group that successfully imposed term limits on City Commissioners in 2014. Now the group is demanding that the city commission change its election cycle from odd years to even years and coincide with the Presidential Election and Midterm Elections, arguing that voter turnout, specifically for minority groups is dramatically higher for even year elections.
Bonnie Burke is the co-founder of Empower the Citizens. She says the election of city officials during odd years was an intentional move to suppress the minority vote, and the plan was hatched over a century ago.
“About a hundred years ago, all over the country, people in power, mainly the white population, didn’t want input from immigrants or from minorities, they wanted to keep control over how the elections would go based on who would vote," Burke said. "So that was tactic used to actually promote them easily winning elections. So, the voter suppression was very real and it has continued to work. And that is why so many cities are changing to even years because of low voter turnout.”
According to data from the Kent County Clerk's office, voter turnout is four-five times higher in even years. Empower the Citizens co-founder Rina Baker says, the city commission can not ignore the facts.
“You become complicit," Baker says. "You are promoting intentional voter suppression if you don’t change, once you have become aware.”
Meanwhile City Commission Tuesday seemed open to the idea of making the change, as city commissioners agreed to create a blue ribbon task force charged with considering the proposal and reporting its findings at a later meeting.