Agenda Item #1
joe mcgarry <[email protected]>
Wed 8/2/2023 12:24 PM
To:Michele Gardner <[email protected]>;Christine Foster <[email protected]> Hello Council,
I hope this finds you well.
In regards to Agenda Item 1 for this evening's meeting I'd ask first and foremost that you absolutely not adopt the Measure and secondly submit the Measure to the voters at the next regular scheduled municipal election on November 5th, 2024.
The stated purpose of the ballot initiative is to bring the issue to the voter's of Fairfax. Historical turnout data tells us that rushing the Measure to a special election on November 7th, 2023 would not achieve that goal as there is no indicator that would suggest that more than 50% of registered Fairfax voters would cast a ballot. Below is data that backs up the belief that the most democratic process is to put it to voters at the November 2024 election that is also a presidential election where it is reasonable to expect Fairfax voter turnout to be 90%.
Here is Fairfax Voter Turnout for the last 6 elections with hyperlinks to the data source. The Marin County public reporting of results and turnout has evolved for the last few elections so there is more detail provided with turnout broken down by precinct (Fairfax precincts are 20301 and 20302). Please keep in mind that 2022 and 2018 were midterm elections and I have provided them to be comprehensive but the more relevant comparison for the presidential election date of November 5th, 2024 are the presidential elections of 2016 and 2020. The relevant comparisons for a November 7th, 2023 would be voter turnouts for 2017 and 2019, as they are all odd year elections with no state or national implications. I also included the only local election for 2021, which was the Tiburon Town Council special election.
2016 89.2% (PRESIDENTIAL)
2017 44.6% (LOCAL ONLY)
2018 84.7% (MIDTERM)
2019 45.65% (LOCAL ONLY)
2020 Precinct 20301: 90.80% Precinct 20302: 90.00% (PRESIDENTIAL) 2021 No Fairfax Election-Only Local Special Election was Tiburon Town Council with 39.36% 2022 Precinct 20301: 73.62% Precinct 20302: 75.91% (MIDTERM) I know this has been a very difficult process and you have weathered a lot in the name of trying to get this right. I'd ask that you stay the course of getting it right now that the issue is going to the ballot. It is imperative that the process be as democratic as possible with the largest number of Fairfax voters weighing in. It is abundantly clear that the only way that happens is with an election date of November 7th, 2024.
Thank you for your consideration
Joe McGarry