With the Amarillo City Council currently working through some proposed amendments to the Amarillo City Charter, we want to offer our support for what should be the most prioritized charter amendment: moving the city elections to November.

During a work session on Thursday, the City Council went through several possible charter amendments, including a pitch by Councilman Tom Scherlen to move Amarillo’s municipal elections to November of even-numbered years.

This is an item that has been on the radar of those involved with local government for many years and received nearly unanimous support from challenger candidates during City Council elections in 2019, 2021, and 2023. Yet, this is the first time the item has ever actually been brought up on the dais by a member of the City Council.

Amarillo currently utilizes a form of local elections that has voters turning out in May of odd-numbered years to elect their mayor and city councilmembers. The May election date has always been a graveyard for turnout, as few voters show up for an election that ends up costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars to run.

Moving the election date to November would put Amarillo in line with numerous other major cities in Texas, including Odessa, College Station, and San Marcos. More than that, changing the election date of municipal elections to November would exponentially increase turnout for city council and mayoral elections.

In the entire history of Amarillo, there have only been two elections in May in which voter turnout exceeded more than 25,000 votes — 1969 and 2005. Yet, of the three municipal proposition elections that have been held in November of even-numbered years, turnout has never fallen below 35,000 votes, and turnout actually neared 70,000 votes for the 2020 propositions election.

As a test case, also look to our neighbors to the south. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused the City of Lubbock to hold its mayoral election in November. Turnout for the May 2018 election reached just over 14,000 votes. Meanwhile, the November 2020 election saw more than 88,000 voters participate in the election for mayor — and it produced one of the closest mayoral elections in the city’s history. Flip back to May 2022, and turnout again slumped down to just over 19,000 votes.

It is absolutely clear: the massive turnout numbers in 2020 were caused directly by having the elections in November, not in May. With November election dates, voters turned out in Amarillo and Lubbock in droves, setting participation records for local elections.

We should be encouraging voter turnout and participation in Amarillo, not discouraging it by holding elections on a strange date on off-years. The more voters that turn out for a local election, the larger share of our city has a say in our government. Isn’t that what we should want?

There is an argument that has been pushed by November opponents for several years, which is that moving the election dates would cause more voters who don’t care about local government to participate and that would be bad thing. We argue the exact opposite would be the case.

Right now, candidates can generate small bases of voters that end up deciding the future of the city for everyone else. Majorities of 10,000 voters can win local elections in Amarillo right now. Just because we have the elections in May doesn’t mean that these 10,000 voters are plugged into local government; they might just be the ones who share some common trait with a candidate.

While this might not sound like that big of a deal, consider that right now, a radical candidate could theoretically win a local election if they found 10,000 voters who share their policy position. Amarillo could end up with a communist or socialist as mayor if they found 10,000 people who would show up for a May election.

Meanwhile, with November election dates, with turnout pushing 50,000 to 70,000 votes, candidates would have to reach and turn out majorities exceeding 25,000 and 35,000 voters to win elections. This would mean that the candidates would have to appeal to broader swaths of the Amarillo population, rather than small, motivated sects of voters.

More participation and local elected officials that better represent the will of the populace of Amarillo at any given moment? This sounds like what we should be aiming for with our elections, rather than smaller turnout and elections decided by small groups of voters.

We encourage the City Council to place a charter amendment on the ballot this year that would move local elections to November of even-numbered years. This would better serve our city by increasing voter participation and ensuring that our City Council better represents the general population of Amarillo.