Thomas Freer0:00 So when most people think about politics, they're obviously picturing Washington, DC, Congress, the president, the presidential election, maybe the Supreme Court, or your congressmen.0:12 But the truth is that political decisions that shape your daily life usually happen much closer to home.0:19 Local politics, like city councils or school boards, mayors, county commissions, you name it, quietly affect everything from the roads you drive on to the taxes you pay.0:32 If you think about it, your local government decides zoning laws, policing budgets, uh public transportation, how your neighborhood develops.0:42 They determine how schools are funded, what textbooks are used there, and whether a park gets built or a parking lot does.0:49 Yet in many local elections, the turnout barely cracks 20%.0:55 People will spend hours debating national politics online, but they will skip the ballot when it comes to their own community.1:03 Local officials make decisions with far less scrutiny than members of Congress, but their impact is immediate and personal.1:11 A single city council vote can decide whether affordable housing gets built or whether your rent keeps rising.1:20 County health board can determine how your city responds to public health crises.1:26 And what's also surprising is how accessible local politics are.
Carl Dagher0:00 Yeah, Thomas, I think local elections are really important.0:03 Um, they're very undervalued.0:05 And from personal experience, I'm a I voted for the first time last November.0:10 Um when I showed up to the ballot, I did not know any of the people who were running for these local elections.0:17 Um I think that's an issue we have.0:22 Um I'm in the class right now, we're making an app that provides information on local elections and you know it gives you unbiased information on each candidate.0:32 I mean it's an app in progress, it's it's more of an idea.0:35 Um and we were in the interview process for this app and we went around campus asking people if they knew who was running for their local elections, and we interviewed over 30, 40 people, and not a single person.0:50 Um not a single person knew one of the local candidates, which is I think is a big issue.0:56 And yeah, I mean when you're voting close to home, those are the issues that you're gonna see every day.1:01 Like uh academic spending.1:03 I know that's something my parents were big on.1:05 Um actually voting in local elections for like education spending because I mean that's one of the values they believe in.1:13 But yeah, I mean the schools you go to, like your police, um, the infrastructure, the roads, that's all determined by local elections, and people don't really realize that.1:23 Um they're really focused only on the big issues, which I think is more of a media issue than kind of people choosing not to not to learn more about it.1:34 I mean, I think local campaigns and elections are severely undercovered, and that's something we should change as a society.
Connor Mcilhinney0:00 I agree with you, Thomas.0:01 I think you make some great points.0:02 I think people put a l lot of time and thought into their national politics, but they don't really look at local politics, which affects them in many greater ways that they don't even understand or or see.0:12 And I think another major reason with this is because um I think it was ballotpedia discovered that 70% of races nationwide uh run uncontested.0:22 So a lot of people think, oh, if I vote Democrat in a blue state, like my vote's not gonna matter.0:27 If you vote for a local uncontested rate uncontested race, your vote really doesn't matter.0:32 Um and I think people who see issues within their local government system with the way their schools are being ran, with the way that maybe their city's deciding to build uh a bunch of c um cement everywhere instead of beautiful parks.0:45 Uh I think people need to take more action and I think people need to run in these uncontested races uh to make a difference.