Election systems in American cities are determined by the nature of the council members' constituency (See Local Elections) and by the presence or absence of party labels on the ballot. With regard to the second feature, there are two types of ballots for city council members. In partisan elections, the party affiliation of the candidate is indicated on the ballot, whereas in nonpartisan elections it is not.
According to a 2001 survey, 77% of the responding cities have nonpartisan elections, and 23% have partisan elections. (See Form of Government and Type of Election in 30 Largest Cities)
Proponents of nonpartisan ballots suggest that:
- political parties are irrelevant to providing services; experts and professionals should determine the service needs of the constituents.
Proponents for partisan elections argue that:
- Absence of party labels confuses voters; a voter who must choose from among a group of candidates who he or she knows nothing about will have no meaningful basis in casting a ballot;
- In absence of party ballot, voters will turn to whatever cue is available, and often this cue turns out to be the ethnicity of a candidate's name;
- Non-partisanship tends to produce elected officials more representative of the upper socioeconomic strata than of the general populace and aggravate the class bias in voting turnout, namely because in true non-partisan systems there are no organizations of local party workers to bring lower-class citizens to the polls on election day; and
- Non-partisanship destroys resources important to coalition building and effective governance.
Sources:
MacManus, Susan A. and Charles S. Bullock, III. "The Form, Structure, and Composition of America's Municipalities in the New Millenium." In Municipal Year Book 2003. Washington, DC: International City/County Management Association 2003, p.15-16.
Ross, Bernard and Myron A. Levine. Urban Politics: Power in Metropolitan American, 6th edition. Wadsworth Publishing, 2000, pp. 70-71.
Svara, James H. Two Decades of Continuity and Change in American City Councils. Commissioned by the National League of Cities, September, 2003.