How much do election schedules matter?
Life, death, election schedules, and voter turnout
It has often been said that the states are “laboratories of democracy,” natural testing grounds for experiments in governance. For example, states differ in how their election schedules work. Some states, such as North Carolina, elect governors during presidential election years when voter turnout is highest. Others, such as New Jersey, elect their state governments in odd-numbered years, when turnout is lowest.
This comes after decades of steady shifts by state and local officials to move state and local elections away from the federal schedule. During the 1960 presidential election, more than half of all states (27 out of 48) held gubernatorial elections. During the 2020 presidential election, fewer than a quarter of all states (11 out of 50) held gubernatorial elections.
The results of this experiment are clear: State governments that are more accountable to the will of the entire voting population are more effective, more competent, and less corrupt. This is clear from approval ratings; it is clear from corruption data; and the COVID-19 crisis illustrated it vividly.
The will of the people
The most general measure of a governor’s competence tends to be their approval rating…