Turnout in Boston’s local elections is abysmal – only 16.5% of the voting-age population cast a ballot in the city’s 2019 city council contest. To make matters worse, these voters were significantly whiter and wealthier than Boston as a whole. The problem is fairly straightforward: Boston, like many other American cities, holds its local elections in odd-numbered years, or “off-cycle.”

Featuring:

• Sarah Anzia (Professor of Political Science, UC Berkeley)

• Jonathan Collins (Professor of Education and Political Science, Brown University)