George,

I've put a lot of thought into the topic of moving Charlottesville City Council elections to November, and I've finally been convinced that it's a bad idea. After all, how can we be sure that the people that the people voting in November are truly interested? So, yes, we must keep the election in May.

But I'm still concerned that we're not getting people that are really informed. So I propose that we cut down on the number of voting places. In fact, let's have just a single voting booth. In Louisa. Because the people that are interested will travel there, won't they? It's just once every two years, after all.

Also, I think that a nominal poll tax would be helpful. Not much. Maybe $20? It's the least that people could do to help support this expensive process. And, of course we want to make sure that they're
voting because they're motivated to do so, and not as a byproduct of any other process.

Had anybody thought about giving a reading test beforehand...?

Best,

Waldo Jaquith (electronic mail, October 18, 2001).