Strategies for Engaging Voters
The City Council and community activists have often called for increased voter participation in Rockville’s elections with little success. Typical are the results from the November 2011 election, when 6,240 ballots were cast out of 36,840 registered voters in a city with 62,476 residents. If I pull out my calculator, that’s a voter turnout rate of 17 percent or put another way, ten percent of the residents are making the decisions for Mayor and Council. We may find that level of involvement low, but it’s much better than neighboring Gaithersburg, where the voter turnout rate is in the single digits. Nevertheless, every two years there’s a call to increase voter participation but not much happens.
Last night, I joined a committee of the Rockville Community Coalition to explore ways to actually work on this issue. We didn’t develop any strategies or start any campaigns, but we did identify that voters are motivated by issues, good candidates, and yes, money (the current Republican primaries are a great example). We’ll explore all three to see how this fledgling group can tackle these topics and we hope to be ready in plenty of time for the next City Council election!
Two Rockville Restaurants Named Best “Cheap Eats”
Tom Sietsema, restaurant critic for the Washington Post, recently named two Rockville restaurants to his list of Best Cheap Eats in the DC region:
- Carbon (100 S. Gibbs Street in the Town Square), a Peruvian restaurant specializing in charcoal-grilled chicken
- Michael’s Noodles (10038 Darnestown Road in the Travilah Square Shopping Center–actually just beyond the city boundaries), a Taiwanese restaurant featuring soups, dim sum, the usual Chinese entrees, and lots of noodle dishes.
And in nearby Gaithersburg, he included Burma Road (617 S. Frederick Avenue, two blocks north of Shady Grove). That’s really impressive for our area, considering Tom had only 17 restaurants on his list!
A Year Without Rockville Central
Rockville Central, June 2007
I hoped for a Christmas miracle, a new year’s resolution, a resurrection, but I guess it’s not happening–Rockville Central has truly closed its door for good. Started in June 2007, it was an ongoing grand experiment in creating an online community that developed a strong local following and attracted national attention. Yup, 2007–ancient history on the internet (recall that Flickr launched in 2004, YouTube in 2005, and the iPhone, Droid, and Kindle all came out in 2007). Brad Rourke and Cindy Cotte Griffiths independently thought of using social media to create a virtual community and then came together to produce and manage Rockville Central. It started with a Picture of the Day (one of Brad’s signature elements) and that first month included stories about:
- Rudy Guliani making a stop in Rockville during his presidential campaign
- Two new planners appointed to the Montgomery County Planning Board
- A new CEO for Goodwill Industries International, based in Rockville
- Free Wi-Fi in Town Center
- Upcoming Events for the Week
- Sidewalk improvements on Beall Avenue
- Sightings of black bears
- The launch of the iPhone
- A woman killed by a MARC train
Over the following years, it had grown, matured, and morphed by producing an internet radio show and YouTube videos, plotting police reports and real estate listings on maps, collaborating with other online communities (such as Lunching in the DMV and Rockville Living), reporting on City Council and other community meetings, creating editorial cartoons (one of Cindy’s signature elements), welcoming guest opinions and contributor reviews, hosting Rockville Roundtables and a City Council debate (one of the best), and moving to Facebook.
It’s amazing what they accomplished in four years but for two volunteers, it was difficult to maintain the pace and they just became too tired to continue. I know the feeling, which is why I post at a much lower pace. As they said in their last post of October 14, 2011 at 3:43 am (am!?):
It takes a great deal of energy and time to support the online community in the way we feel it deserves. We do not make money off of Rockville Central, and never intended to. It is a labor of love and devotion to Our Fair City. We don’t feel we can devote the kind of energy it deserves and so, rather than let it whither, we decided to make a clean end.
Rockville Central helped identify the important news in the community, facilitated discussions in a civil and respectful manner, made us see our town in new and interesting ways, and introduced us to the many thoughtful and socially-active people who live in Rockville. I’ll miss Rockville Central this year, but thankfully, Rockville still has Brad and Cindy.
Max For Rockville Now on Twitter
If you use Twitter to keep up with what’s happening, you can follow this blog @MaxforRockville. Every blog post is automatically shared on Twitter, plus I often use Twitter to report on immediate events in Rockville as I encounter them, such as traffic snarls and city meetings. If you’ve been following @MaxvanBalgooy, those tweets will now focus on my professional work in historic preservation, community engagement, and urban design.
2011 Rockville Election Analysis Available
Dr. Roald Schrack recently released his analysis of the city council election based upon a statistical breakdown of each voting precinct in the city. His observations include:
- About 17 percent of registered voters actually voted, continuing the trend of a low participation rate. [or to put it another way, less than 10 percent of the population (6,240 voters) decided the fate of the entire city (66,000 residents)] Kudos to District 9 (College Gardens and Woodley Gardens) for a highest participation rate of 23 percent (and what’s happening in District 6 (Montrose, North Farm) with only 8 percent?).
- Hot topics were the Red Gate Golf Course and resistance to urbanization.
- State officials associated with political parties actively joined campaigns for the first time, breaking the non-partisan nature of city elections.
- Endorsements by the Gazette, forums, and mailings were probably the tactics that most influenced voters.
- Absentee ballots were much higher than usual, perhaps due to the televised forums and the introduction of the City’s effort to assist residents in nursing homes with voting.
- Formal slates or informal allies among candidates are a clear advantage.
- Negative campaigning is effective in Rockville.
- Well-informed campaigns are much more effective in Rockville than in the county.
Roald provided a charts to compare the Mayoral races in 2009 and 2011, but didn’t provide any analysis. Comparing Marcuccio’s performance in both years seems to show that she maintained her appeal in the same precincts except for significant gains in districts 2 (West End) and 5 (Twinbrook) and significant losses in districts 4 (Twinbrook Forest, Silver Rock, Burgundy) and 7 (Potomac Woods, Fallsmead, Rockshire).
You’ll find more details (and lots of charts) in his 2011 Rockville Election Analysis (pdf). Thanks, Roald!
Rockville’s Last Farmers’ Market today
It’s a frosty morning but the farmers’ market in downtown Rockville is busy. Available are apples, sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, kales, radishes, apple cider, peppers, green beans, potatoes, tomatoes (yup!), broccoli, fennel, leeks, cauliflower, dill, escarole, turnips, and onions. Breads and pastries, cheese, sausages, chicken, beef as well and a long line at Otterbein Acres.
The Election is Over but Challenges Lie Ahead
The Rockville City Council elections are over and while the results aren’t official until certified, congratulations to Phyllis Marcuccio who will continue as Mayor, Bridget Newton and Mark Pierzchala who will continue on Council, Tom Moore who will be new on Council, and John Hall who will return to Council after a brief hiatus (and thanks to John Britton and Piotr Gajewski for their recent service on Council). No doubt everyone has already seen the election returns and noted that the Mayor’s race was not only heated but close–they were separated by 415 votes out of a total of 6113 votes. If 209 people (that’s 3 percent of those voting for Mayor) had voted differently, we’d have someone else as Mayor. It’s even closer in the Council race–Moore made it onto Council by just 51 votes. So if anyone thinks their vote doesn’t count, think again if you’re living in Rockville.
Although we know the election results for the entire city, Roald Schrack has broken it down by precinct which provides a clearer picture of what happened–and what it might mean for the governance of the city during the next two years:
- Voting followed two different clusters of candidates: Hall-Gottfried-Newton-Trahan vs Moore-Onley-Pierzchala. That suggests that the community has formed two different visions for its governance, and since the election resulted in an even split among these two “slates” on Council, we might have Continue reading →
All Signs Point to Election Day
It’s 7 am and the campaign signs are surrounding the polling places. They’ll guide you and make a last minute persuasion but don’t believe everything you read (although I’m from Twinbrook and I don’t recall the neighborhood supporting Marcuccio). This sign was authorized by Michael Sweet–does he even live in Twinbrook?). I’ll be at the Twinbrook Community Center to assist any undecided voters and will tweet the numbers in the morning. Be sure to vote today!
Endorsements for Rockville City Council
I’ve read the literature, participated in two debates, visited the websites, listened to neighborhood discussions, and talked to some of the candidates and am now ready to announce my endorsements for City Council:
City Council
- Tom Moore: I met Tom during the last election and even though I was among his opponents, he was incredibly fair, thoughtful, considerate, and funny. I liked him so much that I passed out his literature as well as mine on election day. Although he wasn’t elected to Council in 2009, he’s continued to stay involved in the community and shows that he analyzes issues and gives other perspectives a fair hearing.
- Mark Pierzchala: Mark’s knowledge of city and neighborhood issues has grown tremendously during his first term on Council and he understands the complex nature of making decisions in a diverse community. I don’t always agree with his decisions (he seems to favor businesses more than residents and the city’s heritage at times) but he always explains how he came to his decisions. He’s the only incumbent I’m endorsing for City Council, and losing him would lose continuity on the Council.
- Virginia Onley: Virginia has a long history of service to Rockville through various committees and boards, so she’s experienced the community from various perspectives. Yet, serving on Council will be Continue reading →
