I have two basic comments on the upcoming November 5th Fishers City Election.

First, early voting will be getting underway soon, and there is a quirk in the voting procedure all should know.

Normally, when one votes a straight ticket, be it Republican or Democrat, you would expect you are voting for all candidates in that party across the board.  That is true, except for one election, the city council at-large race.  Even if you vote a straight party ticket, you must vote for the at-large candidates separately or you will be skipping that race altogether.

All Fishers voters do not have a contested city council district election, because several incumbents are unopposed.  In the at-large election, there are three Republicans and one Democrat on the ballot.  You may cast your vote for up to three of the four candidates.  All voters in Fishers will be able to vote on the at large council election.

Once again, if you select a straight party vote, you still must cast individual votes in addition to voting straight party for the at-large city council election in Fishers.

Second, I want to comment on what I have observed so far in this Fishers election campaign.

I have a news-gathering partnership with the Hamilton County Reporter newspaper, and under that partnership, placed a Fred Swift commentary in the paper’s Sunday edition on this blog.  In that piece, Fred essentially argues that the county municipal elections “lack excitement.”

Fred has been in the center of Hamilton County politics for a long time and I respect his views.  Frankly, I don’t know much about the other municipal elections, but I have been surprised at the level of attention our Fishers election is receiving.  I realize the lack of a mayor’s race takes a great deal of luster off the campaigns, but there are a few pieces of evidence I have observed that lead me to believe this election could be interesting.

First, The League of Women Voters held a candidate forum recently.  Sadly, past sessions have not been well attended.  This year’s forum did not fill city hall, but a much larger-than-usual audience was on hand.

Secondly, I have recorded and posted podcast interviews with all 6 candidates in district city council contested races.  Looking at my podcast statistics, there have been about 400 instances where someone has accessed one of those podcasts, and listened to most or all of the interview.  That is a fairly high number for this point in the campaign for a city our size.  Local people are interested and listening to what the candidates have to say.

I plan to post podcasts interviews with the four at-large city council candidates in the coming two weeks.

Finally, I am seeing candidates and their campaign workers going door-to-door, talking with voters and listening to them.  This has not happened with all the candidates in past elections.  I know some city council candidates did little or no door-to-door campaigning four years ago.

So, I see some evidence of interest in our local city election.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not arguing that there is a high level of voter engagement, but I see an uptick from four years ago.

Of course, the true test will come when voter turnout is measured.  I have been saying and writing for more than 8 years how important local elections are to everyone in Fishers.  Check out the candidates and vote!