Teams Without Uniforms – The Truth About Non-Partisan Elections

Have you ever wondered why teams wear uniforms?

Uniforms visually unite individual players. They identify who is on the field and let spectators know which team has possession and which team is on defense. Uniforms help players recognize they are part of a team with shared goals and objectives.

Imagine a world where teams play without uniforms. Spectators would have no idea what was going on. Who has the ball? Who scored? Games would evolve into chaos and confusion as players lose their most important cue for identifying their teammates – a uniform.

OUR POLITICAL UNIFORMS

In politics, party affiliations are our uniforms. Most of us wear Republican or Democratic uniforms, but some wear Libertarian, Green, or Democratic Socialist uniforms. Many voters say they are “unaffiliated,” but 81% of those voters lean Democratic or Republican and only 7% are true independents. The reality is, virtually all of us wear political uniforms.

Here in Holmdel, our Charter Study Commissioners want to strip you of your political uniforms. They want to install non-partisan elections and deny voters their right to know everything they can about their candidates. They want to hide political affiliations from you and change the way you vote!

Stripped of political uniforms, municipalities with non-partisan elections wind up with suppressed voter turnout and entrenched incumbents. That’s why, like Holmdel, the overwhelming majority (85%) of New Jersey municipalities allow their citizens to proudly wear their political uniforms and conduct partisan elections.

PARTISAN, NON-PARTISAN – WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE, ANYWAY?

Holmdel’s municipal elections are held on a partisan basis. The party affiliation of each candidate appears on your ballot along with their name. You know which uniform they are wearing. This is critical information for our residents. Why would anyone want to hide that from you?

The Charter Study Commission and their supporters, on the other hand, want to impose non-partisan elections and deny you the ability to know the party affiliation of your candidates. They claim that stripping candidates of their political uniforms will somehow “end partisan dysfunction” and will “remove outside interference from political party bosses in our local elections.”

But what they really want is political power, since their favored candidates can’t seem to win elections. That’s why they want to change the way you vote – so they can exert control over the process…

MEET THE NEW LINE, SAME AS THE OLD LINE

How does a non-partisan municipal election work? In theory, candidates appear on your ballot without party affiliations. But candidates can list “designations,” which are short slogans. Designations will look something like “Holmdel First”, “Better Holmdel”, “One Holmdel”, or “Save Holmdel.”

In practice, non-partisan candidates will form alliances and will run as teams. But you won’t know what uniforms they are wearing! All you will see are their shared designations (like “Holmdel First”). Instead of having candidates affiliated with parties that you know and understand, candidates will now be aligned with cryptic slogans representing mysterious groups that you don’t really know.

Candidates running under the same designation will even appear on the ballot together in “brackets.” That sounds an awful lot like the “line” system we already have and that they want to get rid of!

And who exactly are these new teams? What do they represent? What are their values? What is their platform? Where is their funding coming from? What are their plans? Where is the transparency?

Can one person manage multiple teams of candidates and effectively control all of Holmdel’s elections?!? Talk about a party boss!

The Charter Study Commissioners neglected to tell you any of this. This is very serious business for Holmdel. They want to overthrow our government and completely replace it. But they never tell you how its going to work or how much it will cost.

With non-partisan elections, they won’t be wearing uniforms. And you will never know what team they are really on!

YOU GOTTA FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO PARTY!

Why do only 15% of NJ municipalities conduct non-partisan elections? Because research clearly shows that non-partisan elections harm voters and suppress voter turnout.

Political parties create a policy link between citizens and their elected leaders. Party affiliations convey policy preferences and help voters make informed decisions. They also motivate voters to participate in the political process. Voters identify with and support the political teams that share their values and wear their uniforms.

Without party information, voters turn to cues like name recognition and familiarity. They look at a candidates' ethnicity, religion, and even social status, to help them make decisions. Turnout tumbles as incumbents grow stronger, since informed voting is costly. And in practice, re-election rates of incumbent candidates in non-partisan elections average 86% and regularly exceed ninety percent!

NON-PARTISAN TROUBLE – WINNING WITH LESS THAN 50% OF THE VOTE

With non-partisan elections, you often have so many candidates on the ballot that a candidate wins with less than 50% of the vote. This violates the fundamental principle of representative government – that the majority has the right to rule. You wind up with a candidate who wins “even though the majority of the electorate would have preferred someone else.” Tinton Falls, which conducts non-partisan elections, provides a good example of this problem.

In their November 2021 non-partisan mayoral election, Tinton Falls voters re-elected 97-year-old Mayor Vito Perillo to a second four-year term. Perrillo defeated three challengers, despite receiving only 38% of votes cast. With so many candidates running, Perrillo was able to become mayor without a majority of voters backing him. In fact, Perrillo became mayor through the votes of only 16% of Tinton Falls’ registered voters! Is Tinton Falls giving “power to the people”? I bet someone once told them, “you choose the mayor”, too…

MORE NON-PARTISAN TROUBLE – ENTRENCHED ENCUMBENTS

With non-partisan elections, incumbent candidates often become so entrenched they wind up running uncontested, or win in lopsided electoral landslides. Quality candidates are often unwilling to bear the cost of entering a difficult race against an incumbent and simply choose not to run at all. That leaves voters with low quality challengers and extends the cycle of incumbency, disenfranchising voters, and decreasing voter turnout. We have a perfect example of this dysfunction close to home in non-partisan Long Branch.

In May 2022, Long Branch mayor John Pallone was re-elected to a second four-year term as mayor in an election where he ran unopposed. Not one challenger even bothered to run against Long Branch’s entrenched incumbent. With the election a foregone conclusion, only 8% of 15,884 registered voters even bothered to vote. To add insult to injury, Long Branch’s entire City Council also won their bid for re-election that night, and they too all ran unopposed! Long Branch residents wound up with the exact same leadership for the next four years – Same mayor, and same 5 city council members. This is yet another example of non-partisan dysfunction. How is non-partisan Long Branch giving power to their people? Again, I bet someone once told them, “you choose the mayor”, too…

VOTE NO TO KEEP THEIR UNIFORMS ON!

Non-partisan elections are simply wrong for Holmdel. Our partisan system has already brought us great success. Holmdel is ranked as one of New Jersey’s top municipalities and is one of the few towns with a “AAA” bond rating.

Yet, the Charter Study Commissioners and their disciples want to impose non-partisan elections on Holmdel. Don’t they wonder why 85% of New Jersey’s municipalities conduct partisan elections, just like we do?

Don’t let them unleash dysfunctional, non-partisan elections in Holmdel. The result will be chaos and confusion for our residents and voters.

Please join me in voting NO tomorrow to reject their radical recommendations.

Make your candidates keep their uniforms on!

You can follow me at: facebook.com/CommitteemanRoccoImpreveduto