Ripple Effect

There’s a certain irony to the fact that local elections have the biggest direct impact on people’s lives — yet they regularly have the lowest turnout, much lower than, say, a presidential election, where every single vote is a tiny drop in an ocean of democratic decision-making.

Your vote in the November 4 town elections — early voting begins October 25, which makes it even more convenient to get to the polls, compared to scrambling to cast a ballot on a single Tuesday — will determine how your property tax bill is spent, how your town will develop (or not), how transparent your government operates. There’s so much at stake, the kinds of issues that fill a town hall meeting room or a Letters to the Editor section, but this is a chance to actually influence what happens.

Yet, nationally, turnout for local elections tends to be 20 to 30 percent — less than half what is typical in a presidential election. In 2023, Suffolk County turned out just 28 percent of registered voters. On the East End, that number can slip to less than 1 in 4.

If you need incentive to get to the polls starting on October 25, think about the ripple effect of your vote. In this election, there are only a few contested races at the town level in East Hampton and Southampton towns, but the town clerk, Town Board and Town Trustees races all have significance on their own. Choosing the right candidates for those offices will affect how each town hall operates, since most taxpayers interact with the town clerk’s office more than any other in the building, dealing with permits, beach parking passes and other necessary elements of life in the towns. The Trustees manage so much of what makes the two towns a unique and special place, and the Town Board members chart the future with policies on development, water quality, traffic management, beach nourishment and the all important allocation of revenue collected from taxpayers.

But there’s more. In addition to budget priorities, the Town Board members choose who sits on various regulatory boards, which has a major impact on the way a neighbor’s property changes, or new houses spring up. With help from Albany, the towns now have a significant purse to devote to affordable housing, and the way that money is spent will affect more and more people locally. Short-term rentals abound, many of them owned by absentee investors, and if that is a phenomenon to be brought to heel, it will be members of the two town boards who do it.

The clerks, meanwhile, will not only be charged with running efficient offices, they have the key responsibility of maintaining transparency both in record-keeping and in the way town government goes about its business. Put the wrong person in that office, and suddenly a veil descends over much of town government.

These are all issues decided not in Albany or Washington, D.C., but right here at home. It all starts with votes in elections like the one to be held November 4. If you sit it out, if you fail to cast an informed vote in your local elections, recognize just how much power you’re abdicating.