They say they want to confer with us, that we should settle our differences.
Keep Our Vote keeps trying. And OVOV keeps lying.
Keep Our Vote doesn't shy away from those who question our information. OVOV makes accusations and when we respond, our comments are removed. One by one, we are muted. We welcome your direct questions on our social media posts and via email at KeepOurVote@gmail.com.
The truth has no versions.
There is no school budget vote if local elections are moved to November. Last March’s failed budget resulted in $630,000 savings to taxpayers every year going forward, compounded by each year’s budget increase. No school programs or educational services were impacted.
The 2% cap is not a cap on the entire budget increase and highly unlikely to ever trigger a budget vote. High cost expenses are not included in the 2% cap. Also, budget increases below 2% can be “banked” and added to a future budget.
While Board of Education elections were held in November, the school budget increase for the 2018-2019 school year was 3.62% and did not trigger a vote. The additional 1.62% equaled $1.5 million from the taxpayers not needed to cover education costs.
Voting on the school budget vote is an insurance policy against Ridgewood taxpayers being unnecessarily overcharged.
Election consolidation has been a largely unsuccessful topic in state legislatures across our country for decades, always promoted as a partisan political strategy for one side or the other, at various times.
The law in New Jersey allowing local school elections to be moved to November is only 8 years old. There's a minimum 4 year waiting period to begin the process to move them back to April. Several municipalities , including ours, have already done that. We are yet to see how many more will follow.
No data or study has demonstrated a specific benefit to local election turnout.
A recent California study pointed to potential detriments of moving local elections to November.
Remember, the truth has no versions. Follow the facts.
Ridgewood local election turnout is higher in the spring than in November, demonstrated by data available from the Bergen County Clerk.
The November local elections experiment in Ridgewood has already failed. Turnout for Board of Education elections held in November from 2014 -2018 spanned from 12.5% (one of our lowest turnouts in the past several years) to 35.5%, an overall average of 24%. During that time, typically hotly contested Board of Education seats went uncontested for four out of those five elections. People stopped paying attention once the local elections were held simultaneously with national, state, and county issues.
Data for Ridgewood local elections held in the spring demonstrates that when voters have the opportunity to focus specifically on our local issues, turnout is higher. This year’s May election had a 29% turnout, higher than the entire November 2019 general election turnout of 22%. Average turnout for Ridgewood local elections is about 2% higher in the spring than in November.
A recent California study on election consolidation demonstrates that even the small incremental increases in voter turnout in certain large cities are not directly attributable to local elections or smaller municipalities. The study also cautions on the negative impact of voter consolidation, when “longer ballots might render it cognitively difficult for voters to make a choice in all contests leading to increased rates of voter roll-off” (when voters only vote for the higher office elections).
There is no data demonstrating that polling in schools poses any risk to students and staff.
If parents and staff prefer however, professional development days, remote learning days, and hybrid remote/in person learning days are all viable options for local election days.
8 of the 10 schools used as polling locations have separate entrances to where polling takes place, isolating that activity from the rest of the school.